The University of Baluchistan (UOB) is the oldest and the largest university in Baluchistan unfortunately, the university is facing a financial crisis. Due to this, the university is closed from more than 2 months. The teaching and non-teaching faculties are closed. The employees have gone on a complete boycott and will continue until the current crisis is resolved. Professors and lecturers are on strike.
Baluchistan is one of the richest resources state in South Asia. However, Baluchistan has the lowest literacy rate being a naturally rich province still the people of Baluchistan faces such type of crisis and the people of Baluchistan suffer in every aspect. Over One trillion US dollars’ worth of natural resources have been discovered in Baluchistan including, Gold, Copper, Black pearl, Oil, Valuable Stones, Coal, Chromite and Natural Gas. Additionally, Baluchistan has an Oceanic coastline that stretches along with one of the world’s most important shipping routes. But what is the benefit of such facilities when the people of Baluchistan are deprived of them? Don’t you think this is injustice? Despite being so much, our government was not able to solve a small problem. This educational institution is our future. The provincial government of Baluchistan presented a budget of 700 billion rupees for the year 2022-23, out of which only 2.50 billion rupees were allocated as grants and aid to the 11 universities in the province. This amount, by and large, is insufficient to address the financial needs of the universities.
On the other hand, the federal budget for the year 2022 was 10 thousand billion rupees, out of which only 65 billion rupees were allocated for the recurring budget for all the universities in the country. This amount is also inadequate for higher education, especially in the field of science, technology, research and development. Given that these are public sector universities, it is the primary responsibility of the Federal and Provincial Governments to provide financial support as mandated by the United Nations Organization (UNO) which has recommended investing at least four percent of GDP in the education sector. On the contrary, Pakistan merely invests less than two percent of its GDP in education which is very shameful for our government that from a long time. The university is closed and teachers are not getting their dues. As a student, I request the government to solve this problem as soon as possible because we are not in the stage to waste more time. Because due to covid19 pandemic, we already faced a lot of problems.