PESHAWAR - The University of Peshawar is in a dire need of at least Rs 180 million to meet its recurrent budget requirements including salaries, daily academic expenses and medical bills. 
In such a situation, all the departments and employees of the university must take special generosity measures to contribute towards reducing the immense financial crunch being faced by the higher education institutions in the country, said Treasurer University of Peshawar Iftikhar Hussain Khan in a university financial briefing on Tuesday.
The Treasurer said to meet its recurrent needs for the last quarter of the present financial year, an amount of Rs 251 million was required, however only Rs 72 million had been provided till date by HEC, which is a point of great concern. He added an estimate of Rs 2510 million recurrent budgets was prepared for the financial year 2011-12 among, which a sum of Rs 1753 million was requested from Higher Education Commission and around 750 million was estimated to be filled from University own resources. However, he said the Higher Education Commission agreed to provide only 837 million, which is 55 per cent of the total amount forecasted.
Iftikhar Hussain said if such financial situation prevailed it would become difficult to pay salaries to university employees for the month of May and June 2012. The university is currently facing a budget deficit of 405 million rupees. This figure can be curtailed from further aggravation if strict controls on expenditures are adopted, he said. “We certainly cannot increase the fee for the students, because of the poor socio economic condition of people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata. The alternate measure for adoption would be rationalization of resources and a balance between earnings and expenditure, said the Treasurer.” He added that the government has increased salaries of University employees but did not allocate money for it in University annual budget. The increase in salaries has a financial impact of Rs 635 million on UoP for the current fiscal year while the government has pledged to provide only Rs 128 million in it.
He said that 35% of work on the academic block B of UoP is left over and funds for the same are also not available.
The Treasurer said that financial crunch is a global phenomena and our country and its institutions are facing the same.
He urged the need for joint corrective and preventive measures to overcome financial crisis the Higher Education Institutions of the country are confronted with.