LAHORE – The Government Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College, commonly known as the MAO College, which remained in the limelight for violent student politics in the 1980s and 1990s, is now marked by discipline since the administration is determined to change its image.
The college was founded in 1933 by the Anjuman-e-Islamia at Amritsar with Prof S Mercado as its first principal. After partition in 1947, the college was shifted to Lahore. The likes of Dr MD Taseer, Dr Dilawar Hussain and Prof Karamat Hussain Jaffari have headed this historic institution.
The MAO College, now an autonomous institution, offers degrees in a number of disciplines of arts, pure sciences and social sciences at Intermediate (FA, FSc, ICom, ICS), Graduate (including BS Honours) and Postgraduate levels.
The incumbent administration claims that the college is offering its students opportunities for overall development, amid a disciplined and peaceful environment in multiple phases. Reportedly, some colleges like Government Islamia College Civil Lines and Government Science College Wahdat Road still have very active student organisations operating there.
MAO College Principal Prof Dr Farhan Ebadat Yar Khan said that currently there was no student organisation in the college. He, however, admitted that some ‘outsiders’ having criminal record occasionally try to disturb the peaceful environment of their college. These criminals claim to be part of a mainstream political party to bully the students but that party did not own them, he addded.
“But the fact is that despite many letters to the authorities concerned, they are either reluctant to arrest them or the criminals come out within 24 hours whenever they are arrested,” Prof Dr Farhan lamented. “These criminal elements – who are actually extortionists and drug peddlers – sit all the day in a park in front of the college, just next to Central Police Office, or at Petrol Pumps adjacent to the college, but no one is there to stop them,” he complained.
“We have asked the students very strictly to show the college identity cards and observe their scheduled check-in and check-out timings so no outsiders could enter the college premises,” the principal said, claiming that the college had enviable atmosphere not only conducive to the academic pursuits but also fruitful for co-curricular and extra-curricular activities with an emphasis on sports, debates and dramatics. There are many literary, scientific and cultural societies contributing to the balanced personality development of the future generation, he said.
MAO College offers BS (Hons) Programme in eleven disciplines and MA classes in six disciplines. At Postgraduate level, it offers classes in English, Economics, Mathematics, Mass Communication, Psychology, Botany and Urdu. At BS level it offers classes in the disciplines of Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, English, Economics, Physics, Mass Communication and Psychology.
Talking about the problems facing by the college, Prof Dr Farhan said that they do not have adequate infrastructure to cater to the needs of more than 6,000 students studying there. He said space was insufficient and there was also a lack of labs. “One Science Block building had been declared dangerous in 1994 but it was evacuated just few months back.”
Talking about the high dropout rate at the college, the principal said that the semester system introduced in most colleges was not a semester system in its true sense and if continued, it was bound to fail. He said the affiliating university delayed examination and results which create hopelessness among the students. It was time to take decision regarding the real autonomy of the 26 colleges in the province, he added.
Prof Dr Farhan said the students were in danger and the CM should look into the matter. He said their college was still under the DPI (Colleges) and Director (Colleges). “In order to run the college smoothly, it should be run directly under the Higher Education Department like Government College for Women, Chunamandi and Government Queens Mary College for Women,” he added.
Moreover, there are only 140 faculty members for the more than 6,000 students, making the teacher-student ratio to only about 1-50. The collage has only 11 PhDs and 15 MPhil teachers. The teachers’ shortage is so acute that courses in some disciplines are being conducted only with one or two teachers. Unfortunately, the Mass Com Department does not have a single permanent faculty member.
Dr Farhan Ebadat said, "Despite all these odds our faculty members work very diligently to maintain discipline and high academic standards.” The principal said that they had requested the authorities concerned many times for creation of posts in these subjects but still the notification is awaited. He appreciated the efforts of HED and Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shuja who he claimed always were there to help him out and took keen interest in solving the issues relating to MAO College.
The college is facing financial problems as the principal said that their existing budget of Rs120 million was too short to meet the expenses and that too was given to the college on quarterly basis. The college has also paucity of water as the only tube-well has been out of order for three years. According the college administration Rs3.5 million is needed to solve the water supply issue but they don’t have funds for it. The college has four buses out of which one is out of order and the remaining three include one 1974 model and one 1986 Bedfords. In order to meet the requirements of the college students, the principal said, at least two more buses and a wagon was essential.