Hundreds of mediocre, dysfunctional universities are littered across Pakistan. Now another one is on its way. To be located at the Prime Minister House on Islamabad’s Constitution Avenue, it has been named Pak University of Engineering & Emerging Technologies. Costing 34.730 billion Pakistani rupees – of which 23.54 billion Pakistani rupees has been approved – this exceeds by eight to 10 times the price of an average public university.

Heavy hype surrounds the university. The official planning document called PC-1 says it is a “Dream University” with “Centres of Excellence” in hi-tech fields – artificial intelligence, machine learning, microelectronics, aerospace, cybersecurity and biotech. Its international faculty will make it “stand among the top research universities of the world while catering to the advanced technology needs of the country”.

Wait! Have we not been there before, time and time again? For a full 20 years, Atta-ur-Rahman – the project’s architect – has been promising the moon to simple-minded national leaders. His other projects have flopped, wasting vast sums of public money. Before Pakistan next approaches International Monetary Fund for the usual dole, we need to recall his unfulfilled pledges.

Billions wasted

Let us begin with Rahman’s three scientific institutes (Husein Ebrahim Jamal Research Institute, TWCST, Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research). These have operated for decades and, between them, annually consume over 1 billion Pakistani rupees. Tasked with drug discovery and applied chemistry, their official website and downloadable annual reports boast many thousand research papers. But, tellingly, there is no mention of the discovery of a single drug or the invention of any industrial process.

To ensure that their true performance remains firmly hidden, a letter dated February 4, 2021, from the Prime Minister’s Office de-authorised Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission from investigating any institution under “supervision by Atta-ur-Rahman”. No cover-up could be more blatant. It suggests lawlessness at the highest level. Unsurprisingly, as per the Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International, Pakistan lost 16 points in 2021 and dropped to 140 out of 180 countries.

Next, recall the $4.3 billion Higher Education Commission project under Rahman in 2005 for making nine engineering universities in collaboration with France, Sweden, Italy and Austria. Half their faculty was to be European. Many buildings – now abandoned – were constructed, and many billions were spent. But, 17 years later, there’s zilch to show. Well, almost. Something called the Pak-Austria Fachhochschule (German for polytechnic) was made in Haripur. But notwithstanding the huge bombast and fanfare, a visit to the polytechnic’s website shows no foreign faculty have come from Austria or elsewhere. It is just a plain, average place.

Buying equipment has been very important to Rahman. Older readers may recall the intense 2005 public dispute between him and Prof Riazuddin (died 2013) who was Pakistan’s finest scientist after Abdus Salam. I too was part of the debate. This concerned purchasing a Pelletron nuclear accelerator for Quaid-e-Azam University. Then worth 400 million Pakistani rupees, a special building had to be constructed for it.

Being nuclear physicists, Riazuddin and I knew that buying this machine would be a terrible waste. We lost the battle but time proved us right. That machine has been junked. It produced no results of significance. Sadly, the same story is to be repeated at Pak University of Engineering & Emerging Technologies which will import billions worth of scientific equipment. Meanwhile, tons of instruments lie unused in universities and institutes.

Critical questions

Smooth talk is not enough. Three critical questions must be answered before wasting yet more billions.

First, why make a research university inside buildings designed to be residential? Built by General Ziaul Haq in the 1980s, the Prime Minister’s residence was also to be a secure guest house for important visitors. PM Khan’s theatrics against lavishness – including selling the PM House’s buffalos – drives Pak University of Engineering & Emerging Technologies. But, although politically attractive, it violates common sense. Red Zone security during VIP movements frequently puts the area off-limits. Classes will be cancelled on many a day.

Second, why not use the existing infrastructure of other universities in Islamabad? For example, the National University of Sciences and Technology is an army-controlled university tasked to develop technologies. It was gifted an entire sector of Islamabad’s choicest land of which it uses just a fraction. Rather than start from zero, surely it makes sense to pool together limited national resources with the National University of Sciences and Technology. Or, just two miles away from the PM House is Quaid-i-Azam University. Engineering departments can be created there as well.

Third, and most crucial, where will the Pak University of Engineering and Emerging Technologies get its super high-quality faculty from? Even large salaries could not attract high-performing foreigners from advanced countries to Pakistan.

Instead, only second-raters from Eastern Europe and Central Asia come to Pakistan for any length of time. As for Pakistanis: just a few are capable of teaching advanced technologies or high science. Everyone knows that existing institutions pretentiously named “Centre of Excellence” are far from excellent. All lack proper faculty.

To see how these questions were addressed, I scoured the approved PC-1 but found no mention. Apart from sections on civil works, this planning document is a joke. To call it an advertising brochure would be better. Old memes stolen from the internet about “knowledge economy” and “technology incubators” are parroted here.

There are lists of equipment – massively overpriced – but no mention of specific uses. Pelletron redux! Approving such shoddy plans exposes the doubtful integrity and poor judgement of Pakistan’s technical committees and lawmakers.

Dire situation

To move ahead, we must first admit that the present situation of Pakistan’s science and science education is dire. University teaching is generally so poor that, with just a few exceptions, Pakistani students sent abroad on full PhD scholarships fail to survive academically in better quality US, British or Chinese universities.

Hence the overwhelming majority seeks admission into lower-grade universities. Like their professors back home, to get ahead they have opted for slippery ways rather than work hard to remove their academic deficiencies.

There are no quick fixes to a deep problem. Substandard universities, meaningless degrees and vacuous “research” publications have exploded in numbers. Like metastasized cancers, they call for drastic, painful treatment.

Scams like Pak University of Engineering and Emerging Technologies will weaken the country further. True scientific development will need basic honesty, critical thinking, good schooling and strong university undergraduate programmes. This must be our starting point.

This article first appeared in Dawn.