KHANEWAL - The newly posted principal of Govt Girls Degree College Abdul Hakeem has allegedly made the life of the employees miserable by getting their power supply disconnected and "illegally" issuing notices to them to vacate the houses.

Principal Gulnaz was of the view that the residential portion of the college had not been officially handed over to the college by the Building Department Khanewal thus the staff should not stay in the colony nor use basic facilities like water, power and gas.

The residents include female professors, male and female clerks, watchmen, gardeners, peons etc. Meanwhile, the extraordinary step by the "inexperienced" principal was highlighted, and the social circles flayed the principal after coming to know the true story.

It is worth mentioning that the residents have been living in the colony for last 5-6 years and meantime correspondence between the principals and the Building Department remained continued but no one in the past had taken such "inhuman" action.

When contacted, two Buildings Department SDOs who remained posted at Khanewal namely Zulfiqar and Nisar rejected the stance of the principal. They said that the portion of college building was officially but 'partially and conditionally' handed to then college principal. They further explained that actually the building was completed in 2010-11 but it remained unused for a couple of years thus its decay was natural. Then the Girls College had conditionally been taken over by the department which submitted a long list of missing works to be done, they said.

Meantime, the locals who reside around the college said that the public had complained to the Punjab government that the colony-cum-hostel of the newly built Girls College was lying deserted and desolated while vagabonds and drug addicts had made it their safe havens.

Councillor Munir Kazmi said that even the girls' students of the college had written to then chief of army staff that they feel unsafe as the residential portion was lying vacant and any terrorist activity might occur there. Following the complaint, it was the college administration which directed the employees to shift to the unpopulated portion immediately.

Thus they said the recent act of the principal was condemnable as she left the employees in darkness and scorching heat.

When contacted, Director Colleges Multan Division Prof Haider Abbas Gardezi pledged to take up the issue with the principal. He said she had chosen wrong time for such a stern action in Ramazan and in hot days forcing the poor families to search for rented houses when the official residences are lying vacant.