The University of Peshawar

Publishing Date: Friday, April 1 2005

Let me tell you that nothing is dearer to my heart than to have a University in the North-West Frontier Province from where rays of learning and culture will spread throughout Central Asia; and provided you go the right way about it, you will get your University sooner than you can imagine.

(M.A. Jinnah, April 1948)

How prophetic and how accurate! In just about two and a half years, in October 1950, the University of Peshawar started functioning. Little did anyone think in April 1948 that it would be so soon! Only the Quaid knew it, for he had a vision, a vision for all of us!!

The Father of the Nation, the Quaid-i-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, uttered these memorable and historic words at the Islamia College, Peshawar, the first landmark of scholarship and enlightenment in the North West Frontier Province. Conceived and founded by a far-sighted son of the soil, Sahibzada Sir Abdul Qayyum Khan, in 1913, the Islamia College stands almost at the entrance of the historic Khyber Pass, the gateway to the Indian sub-continent.

To translate the Quaid's vision into reality, the then Chief Minister of the NWFP, Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan, constituted a committee in 1949 to overlook the establishment of the University of Peshawar. Consequently, a five-year plan was prepared for the purpose.

After the promulgation of the University of Peshawar Act, the late Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, laid the foundation stone of the University on 30 October 1950. The University is situated about seven kilometers from the Peshawar Cantonment on the way to Khyber Pass at a height of 347 meters (1138 feet) above sea level.

The University of Peshawar has shown tremendous progress. It has grown from a three-classroom campus in 1950 to a full-fledged, town-like, institution, spreading over a campus of 1050 acres, and housing over thirty postgraduate departments in all the disciplines of the Arts, the Humanities, the Social, the Physical, the Natural, and the Biological Sciences, Centres of Excellence in Geology and Physical Chemistry, an Academy of Pashto Language and Literature with a Khushal Khan Khattak Research Cell, the Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre, the Area Study Centre, the Pakistan Study Centre, the Quaid-i-Azam College of Commerce, two women colleges (Jinnah College for Women, and the College of Home Economics), and three schools.

The University, being residential, now has TEN hostels on campus - seven for boys and three for girls - all at walking distance from academic buildings. Moreover, to provide healthy recreational facilities to students of the University, the construction of an auditorium, a gymnasium and a squash complex with swimming pools is being planned. Moreover, the University Campus has several playgrounds, all in close proximity to the hostels. The Campus is a town of 25,000 residents, including 30% of the teaching staff, non-teaching employees and 3000 students, provided with all consumers facilities.

Enclosed within the four walls of the University campus, or in its immediate vicinity, are other institutes of higher learning, such as, the NWFP Agricultural University, Pakistan Forest Institute, NWFP University of Engineering and Technology, the Khyber Medical College, the Khyber College of Dentistry and Oral Medicines, Institute of Radio Therapy and Nuclear Medicine (IRNUM). PCSIR Labs; the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, Directorate of Agriculture, Agricultural Training Institute and the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education, Peshawar. In other words, the University Campus is like an academic town having facilities for education right from nursery to the highest level in almost all important branches.

The Campus has a PBX exchange of 200 lines that connects all departments, hostels, and residences for easy communication. Moreover, the Campus has its own Local Area Network (LAN) that provides Internet facility to almost all the departments. Plans are in progress to expand the LAN to hostels and residences.

In short, the Peshawar University Campus is the most beautiful campus in Pakistan. Its being situated at the entrance of the historic Khyber Pass, its magnificent and systematic layout, and a series of well-planned buildings have further added to the charm of the University. The University of Peshawar has justifiably attained the position of being one of the most significant universities in the East.

Source (Data&Figures): University Calendar 2000