Public varsities forced to borrow loans

KARACHI - Wrong policies of the present government have forced the public universities in the country to borrow loans from commercial banks in order to pay salaries to their employees as the federal finance ministry still has not released the fourth quarterly instalment of development and recurring grant worth Rs 7.4 billion for 2007-08 to the Higher Education Commission (HEC), a well-placed source told The Nation on Friday.

"Some public universities, facing scarcity of funds, have already borrowed loans from banks to pay the salaries of their employees. "The NED Engineering University Karachi is one of them which used the facility of bank loans for said purpose," the source said.