The foundation of the International Islamic University, Islamabad was laid on November 11, 1980.

The desire to produce scholar and practitioners, imbued with Islamic learning, and capable of meeting the needs of the Muslim Ummah was the raison d'tre of this university. The university was reconstituted as International Islamic University, Islamabad with the promulgation of Ordinance No.xxx of 1985. The university is ranked at No. 8 in Pakistan [1] and 3470 in the world.[2] The university's Old campus is located around the Faisal Mosque. The New campus is located in Sector H-10 of Islamabad, a sector given solely to the university. As envisaged in the Master Plan of the new campus, the university will be completed in phases; Stage-I of Phase-I has reached culmination while stage-II is nearing completion. When constructed in its entirety, the university will accommodate 30,000 students (20,000 male and 10,000 female) in 2225 faculties. In addition, there will be 57 hostel blocks for male students and 28 for female and partial accommodation for teaching/research and administrative staff.
International Islamic University Islamabad Students held a strike against increase in hostel dues on 26th Sept, 2011. President of University negotiated with Students and agreed on their demands after which issue resolved.

Female students at International Islamic University (IIU) staged a protest demonstration on Monday against the administration for what they called excessive fees structures, inadequate space and poor hostel accommodation. The frustrated female students boycotted classes and conducted a protest demonstration full of banners, placards and slogans denouncing the university administration. The administration was quick to act and closed the main gate of the female campus. The students were demanding a revisit of the fee structure, keeping the budget of a common person in mind. They also demanded that the management of hostels be improved. Hundreds of
female students residing in International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI)s hostels on Monday morning locked all the gates of the varsity, denying entry to any students and teachers into the varsity in a protest against what they called the unjustifiable utility charges and hostel fee they were compelled to pay. After blocking all gates, the female student protestors burnt tyres in the IIUI premises and raised slogans against the IIUI administration. The female students carried placards inscribed with various slogans in favour of their demands. Due to the strike, all educational activities remained suspended in IIUI on Monday. They were of the view that without any justification, the IIUI administration had raised their hostel fee while they were being provided substandard and costly food items at the universitys mess and cafeteria. We are being forced to pay for an amount of food we do not get, said Nazish, a BBA student. The protesting students said IIUI was charging extra dues even for using the fridge and iron and two

girls

were

forced

to

sleep

on

one

bed.

Despite paying hefty sums of money to the university, we are being asked for forced sharing of our beds, said Nargis Shah, an Masters in English student. The students demanded of the university administration to suspend the hostel warden Sumaria Niaz as she had failed in addressing problems being confronted by the boarding students. Later on, the protesting students presented 10 points of their demands to the IIUI president, who accepted their demands and referred the hostel warden Sumaria Niaz case to a committee and assured the students that the committee would decide Sumarias case on Tuesday (today). On this note, the students called off their strike.

Around 10,000 female students are currently enrolled in the university, while accommodation is available for less than half of them.
Rector Professor Fateh Muhammad Malik said that all the genuine demands of the students have been
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accepted and would be fulfilled soon. Shortage of hostel accommodation is one of the biggest problems for the IIU, the third biggest university in the country. The boys` hostels can accommodate 2,500 students and another 1,800 in the girl`s hostels, but there are more than 4,500 students living on the campus. Though foreign students are first in line to get the hostel accommodation, most of them live in private homes. Most of the three-bed accommodation for male students had four students living in them. The room gets stuffed but we are friends and we are also far away from home. An extra mattress on the floor is not that bad, said a student from Fata, who had to wait over a year before he could find an empty bed in one of the rooms.Gul Ahmad, another student, added that he and his friend had to fight for their right. We learnt that the administration was favouring some students who had come after us without realising that we had been in line since a year, Ahmad said. He had to twice change residence as he was trying to find a room in the hostel. According to some students sitting in the activity area for lunch, it is common for an applicant to sell his `bed` while he lived off campus. Zafar Shah paid Rs2,500 to a student who allowed him to stay in his room for a six-month semester, hoping that he would get his own room and bed. That`s how it works here. The price could be between Rs2,500 and Rs17,000 depending on the need. The friend who sold me his bed asked me if I could pay a small amount of his fees and I agreed. These people have made education a business. Poor students cannot afford the high fees and they should be considerate towards them, said Najma Sadiq, a female student. Students from the far-flung areas of the country find it very hard to get accommodation at the university hostels, she added. However, he said, the protest was led by some individuals who have already completed their studies and were even working elsewhere, but were refusing to vacate the hostels, accommodation at which is much cheaper than renting from the open-market in Islamabad. When notices were issued to these women, they provoked other students to protest, he said. Presently the university has five hostels for female students, with a capacity of around 7,000. Permission for construction of two more hostels has been received, which would help accommodate more students, said Malik.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2011.

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According to officials of the IIU administration, shortage of funds was the university`s biggest hindrance in constructing new hostels. They were speaking on the condition of anonymity. They said most of the university buildings hostels, laboratory, two faculty blocks and even some of the roads were constructed out of the money donated from Middle East based private establishments.

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The university got funding from the government twice during General (retired) Pervez Musharraf`s tenure Rs650 million and Rs480 million. However, the university had not received a dime out of the Rs450 million promised by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani who acknowledged the university`s requirements two years ago at a ceremony at IIU. Funds are needed to build two new 800 rooms blocks for boys and one 400-bed block for girls, the official said, adding that each block would cost between Rs140 million to Rs150 million.