The biggest casualty of the recent NUML controversy is the credibility and prestige of this modern institute of learning, which is a tragedy considering state of the education sector. That the Army has forever been called upon 'to clear the messbe it political, law & order or financial bunglingleads us to believe that the civil administration is neither capable nor sincere. The NUML, by the way, was primarily established by Pakistan military to meet the requirement of language training of the Armed Forces. But it was handed over to the Allama Iqbal Open University in the period between 1974-1976. Eventually, due to the deteriorated standards and 'performance far from satisfactory, it had to be reverted back to the Army through a Presidential Order. But as of today, out of 500 faculty members, only 20 are from the Armed Forces, most of them retired but duly qualified. Out of the 8,000 students, only 200 are from the military. This is also a fact that the Director General, Dr Kamran Jahangir, who has to be a qualified Brigadier of the Army Education Corps under the law, is a actually a civilian. The propaganda that this prestigious institution is under the military dominance is uncalled for and aims at lowering the prestige of this establishment. One needs to analyse its performance during the last two decades and block attempts to desecrate it. -F Z KHAN, Islamabad, February 20