A view of Islamia College Peshawar

Islamia College Peshawar is a public sector university located in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was separated from the province of Punjab in 1901 and was given provincial status. At that time there was only one institute (Edwards College) in the whole province, that was not enough to fulfill the educational needs of the young generation. The other drawback of Edwards College was its pure Western education with no focus Islamic values which made many of the students reluctant to take admission in it.

The idea of another college to cater educational needs of the youth of the province was taking a solid basis in the minds of Sir SahibZada Abdul Qayoom Khan and George Roos-Keppel by 1909. The very same year they visited Aligarh Muslim University and collected a handsome amount of donations from the students which further strengthened the idea of a college in the province.

When SahibZada Abdul Qayoom Khan asked students what to do with the collected donations, students requested to build a hostel for them. Sir SahibZada Abdul Qayoom Khan told them that instead of building a hostel in Aligarh University, he would like to build a new college for them at Peshawar.

Sir SahibZada Abdul Qayoom Khan arranged a meeting of leading figures of Peshawar on 12th of April 1911, which was attended by Arbab Ghulam Rahim Khan, Sir SahibZada Abdul Qayoom Khan, Habibullah Khan and others. Sir SahibZada forwarded a motion for the collection of donations which was responded generously by all the attendees and later on, by those who were not present. Bibi Gul, a lady from Prang, donated her jewelry for the cause which showed her determination to the cause.

Haji Sahib Taurangzai, a leading religious figure of his time, was invited by SahibZada Abdul Qayoom Khan for the inauguration of the college. Haji Sahib accepted the invitation but he was not allowed to travel to Peshawar because he was being banned from the territory controlled by British due to his freedom movement against the British Raj.

Sir SahibZada pressed upon Roos-Keepel to compel British to allow Haji Sahib to inaugurate Islamia College and a temporary stay in Peshawar. British Raj permitted him for this ceremony based on the condition that as soon as the ceremony ends he would return to Tribal areas. Haji Sahib Taurangzai hid his face in his sheet so that he could not see the occupiers on his land.

On 1st of October, 1937, Classes started in the Islamia College Peshawar, having an initial enrollment of 33 students for the first year. College kept on expanding with time, the expansion was slowed down by the demise of Sir SahibZada Abdul Qayoom Khan in 1937 but this institute resisted the ups and downs of time and is now a renowned institute of the region.

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had so much great love and compassion for this institute that he nominated Islamia College Peshawar as one of the inheritors of his property. Islamia College Peshawar was paid 10.8 Million Rupees in different installments as per the will of Hazrat Quaid. Quaid-e-Azam visited Islamia College Peshawar three times in his lifetime in 1936, 1945 and 1948 and was given honorary membership in the Khyber Union. This college produced such gems that played a key role in Movement for the establishment of a separate homeland for Muslims and through this struggle Muslims achieved their destination, Pakistan.