When Pakistan was came into being once it was under consideration to make Dera Ghazi Khan –the city situated at the southern Punjab –  the capital of country because of its location. It is located in the country’s center which links all four provinces of Pakistan.

Pakistan Atomic refinery is also in this city. This city has immense geographical and manpower importance. The city has produced many big politicians who represent the country in the National Assembly, Punjab Assembly, and even ruled the Punjab CM House, Punjab Governor’s House, President’s House. The people of DG Khan are very talented and hardworking the literacy rate in this city is very high as compared to other cites of Punjab.

However, due to the unavailability of better higher education system, the young talented students of DG Khan have to leave the city and move to Lahore, Multan and other parts of the country for better education. However, many people in DG Khan can’t afford to send their children in other cities for better education.

There are number of schools in this city but when comes to university there is only one government university in DG Khan which is also in the making, so far, as there is no proper staff in Ghazi University. Before Ghazi University there were three campuses of different public sector universities were working in DG Khan which at some point fulfilled the requirements of students. These includes Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Virtual University and Agriculture University Faisalabad. But in 2015 the CM of Punjab merged all campuses into one university and named it Ghazi University.

After the establishment of Ghazi University the city should move forward in the way of their own university, but the city moved backward again, the bad education system in Ghazi university, not proper classes, no value of degree, reference based teachers appointments, bad infrastructure are the key issues because of which many students left Ghazi University and moved to Multan and other cities their studies.

The city needs new government as well as plus private sector universities, new sub campuses of different universities like in Lahore and Multan. In Lahore there are six government universities and many sub campuses of different government universities. The number of private universities is also high. Same is the case in Multan with three government universities and many sub campuses of government plus private sector universities providing high quality education to the people of Multan at their door steps.

If in other cites different universities and sub campuses are working simultaneously, why not in Dera Ghazi Khan. Instead of merging the sub campuses of BZU Multan, D.G.Khan and Agricultural University Faisalabad, the government should establish a separately Open University in Dera Ghazi Khan. If such a step is taken, the quality of education will increase; the sense of competition will increases among universities in terms of providing better education to their students. More importantly the students would get good and less expensive education at their doorsteps without leaving their city.

This would also create job opportunities for young educated students of DG Khan who have completed their education but still couldn’t not get any job because there are very less job opportunities for students in the education sector of Dera Ghazi Khan. The city needs jobs for their talented PhD, MS and MBA graduates. It is a hope that the Punjab government would soon take steps to resolve this unspoken but major issue of the city by announcing establishment of at least one university and opening campuses of two public sector universities.

(The writer is Media Studies Scholar and The Educationist DG Khan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at: [email protected])