Laptops event at Punjab University

Laptops event at PU: LHC questions CDGL plan to reimburse expenses
Lahore, April 13: The Lahore High Court on Thursday directed the City District Government of Lahore to explain under what law it was going to reimburse expenses made by the Punjab University on a laptops distribution ceremony held on March 23.

On March 22, Justice Umar Ata Bandial had restrained the university vice chancellor from bearing expenses of the ceremony. The Punjab government had announced that it would bear the expenses incurred on the ceremony.

A citizen, Nazir Ahmad filed the petition on the matter.

A Punjab government law officer told the court on Thursday the CDGL would reimburse Rs10.61 million to the university. At this, petitioner's counsel Aftab Ahmad Bajwa raised an objection and said how the CDGL could use its funds for a function based on political projection of a particular party.

He said the PML-N leaders delivered political speeches at the laptops distribution ceremony. The machines could have been distributed
among the students by the university itself without staging a 'political drama'.

Justice Bandial agreed with the counsel's version and sought explanation from the CDGL within two weeks to justify its act of bearing the laptops distribution ceremony's expenses.

The petitioner had submitted that the PU VC had arranged the function only to please Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his brother, Nawaz Sharif.

He said the respondent VC for the satisfaction of the chief minister allocated Rs30 million for the ceremony and also spent Rs5.8 million on refreshment.

The petitioner also alleged that there was apprehension that the huge amount allocated for the laptops distribution function would be embezzled by the vice chancellor. He urged the court to declare the impugned act of the respondent waste of public as well as students' money. Dawn

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PU results
Lahore: PU on Thursday announced results. These exams included Diploma in Medical Radiology Therapeutics (DMRT), Part-II, Supplementary 2010, Diploma in Laryngology & Otology (DLO), Part-II, Supplementary 2010, Diploma in Tuberculosis & Chest Diseases (DTCD) one year, Supplementary 2008, BSc (2-year), Semester System 2001-2003, MPhil Persian (Semester System), Session 2009-2011, and Diploma in Persian (Semester System), Session 2010-2011.

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Schoolteachers hold protest against Punjab govt
Lahore: Hundreds of schoolteachers held a rally on Thursday and strongly protested against the Punjab government for ignoring their problems. They also announced to boycott any kind of non-academic assignments given to them by the government in the future.

The Muttahida Mahaz Asataza Punjab (MMAP) had organised the rally, which turned into a protest sit-in at its culmination point. It started from Nasser Bagh, Lower Mall, and ended near the Punjab Civil Secretariat. The protest also caused a great traffic mess on the Lower Mall and many adjacent roads for many hours.

The participants of the rally, carrying banners and posters, chanted slogans against the Punjab government and demanded timescale promotions, increase in salaries and benefits as being paid to the teachers by the federal government and other provinces.

The MMAP office-bearers addressed the participants at the sit-in and strongly criticised the government. They condemned the government move of assigning non-academic duties to schoolteachers on a frequent basis.

They also strongly protested against the Punjab government's move of converting all the public sector schools into English medium schools besides condemning the alleged move of introducing changes in the syllabus of Islamiat subject. The news

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Over 450 FDE teachers await regularisation
Islamabad: As many as 456 of the contractual and daily wage teachers in the basic pay scale (BPS) 16 and 17 in the federal capital are still waiting for regularisation of their services, it has been learnt.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani's announcement on January 5, 2011, that all contractual employees would be regularised had given a new hope to these teachers.

Later the same year, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) started the process of regularising the teachers on the basis of seniority. Official sources said so far all the BPS-16 teachers who joined the department before September 11, 2006, had been regularised. As far as teachers in BPS-17 are concerned, those hired by August 22, 2007, have been regularised while all others joining the department after that day are in the waiting list.

Officials also said the FDE was expecting that by the end of this week about 100 more teachers would submit their particulars for regularisation.

A source in the FDE requesting not to be named said initially it was decided that teachers who had completed one-year contractual service or three spells of 89 days each by December 31, 2011, would be regularised. Later, however, the facility was extended to all those who met the criterion till February 29, 2012.

"Because of the new decision, we once again sought data from all the educational institutions and so far have received almost 95 per cent data. As soon as we get the remaining information, it will be sent it to the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD)," he said.

About the teachers in BPS 16, he added that there were 195 junior lady teachers working in the model schools and 61 in the federal government colleges. "Almost 90 per cent contractual and daily wage teachers in BPS-16 are females," the official said."There are 192 females who have been working in BPS-17 on contractual or daily wage basis. Out of these, 173 are in model colleges and 19 in the federal government colleges. Besides, 53 male daily-wage teachers are also working in different colleges," he said.

One of the teachers said she had been working for the last three years and was at the edge of promotion. However, she added: "Now we are being told that new vacancies will have to be created for our regularisation."

She added: "We are worried because if our services are not regularised within a few months, the election campaign will be started and after that no one will get time to look into our issue. It is also a fact that only the PPP government has the reputation of regularising the services of its employees. If some other party comes to power, it might even start downsising."Spokesman for Federal Government College Teachers Association Professor Tahir Mehmood said the association was struggling to get the services of all the teachers regularised.

When contacted, Joint Secretary CADD Prof Rafique Tahir said it has been decided that all the contractual teachers would be regularised. "Head of the cabinet committee Syed Khursheed Shah has been taking personal interest in resolving the issue and as soon we get the data of the teachers, it will be forwarded for creation of new posts so that services of the teachers will be regularised," he said. Dawn

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Textbooks not available
Lahore: The Punjab government seems to have failed to address shortage of textbooks of Punjab Textbook Board (PTB). The text books of various subjects are still unavailable to students of private and government schools despite start of new academic session.

The students of government schools have yet to receive full set of books given to them free of cost by the Punjab government. The Government New Model Girls High School, Sant Nagar, near the Commissioner's Office has asked its students to buy book of Class-VI Home Economics from market, despite the fact students of public schools are supposed to get all the textbooks free of cost, since the school had not received book of Home Economics from the government. However, the book is also short in the market which has greatly irked innocent students and their parents. Similarly, the students of private schools are facing difficulties in finding Class-9th's Islamiat textbook from the market.

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Position-holders of scholarship exams get prizes
Rawalpindi: A prize distribution ceremony for position-holders of primary and middle standard scholarship examinations held under the Federal Government Educational Institutions (Cantonment-Garrison) was held at the Federal Government Quaid-i-Azam Public School, Chaklala. 

In primary standard scholarship examinations, Muhammad Ismail got first position by getting 501 marks out of 600, Ammara Yasmin got second position by securing 497 marks and Muhammad Sikandar got third position by getting 487 marks. In middle standard examinations Shafaq Arooj got first position by securing 613 marks, Madiha Ejaz got second position with 609 marks and Nimra Tariq got third position by getting 598 marks.  

Addressing students, Federal Government Quaid-i-Azam Public School (Chaklala) Principal Muhammad Younas Bajwa appreciated position-holders and encouraged other students to work hard for best results.

In the end, the principal distributed prizes, certificates, appreciation letters and shields among position-holders.

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Roots holds award ceremony for high-achievers
Islamabad: Roots School System (RSS), DHA-1 Campus, held High Achievers Award Ceremony-2012 at the Jinnah Convention Centre, Islamabad, on Thursday to celebrate achievements of the graduating students. 

Once again, Rootsians got coveted acceptance offers from top universities of the world for four years of undergraduate study.

The chief guests for the occasion were Farzana Raja, minister & chairperson of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP); Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali, MNA & co-chairperson of the Pakistan Education Task Force; Sardar Muhammad Umar Goragaje, federal minister for postal services; Thomas Miller and Michael Gainan, minister counsellor for Public Affairs at the US Embassy; Rodolfo J. Martin Saravia, ambassador of Argentina; Rita Akhtar, executive director of the USEFP, Dr. Nilf Tomef, director education at the British Council and Uzma Yousaf, country manager of the Cambridge International Examinations.

Speaking on the occasion, Khadija Mushtaq, executive director of the Roots School System, DHA-1 Campus, congratulated the high-achievers and said: "Roots has set new standards and raised the bar in terms of fascinating futures for all our students."

The top 10 high-achievers are Ahsan Mehmood who got acceptance from Princeton University with a full scholarship of $56,780 per annum for 4 years; Anjum Malik got acceptances from University of Cambridge and Cornell University with a full scholarship of $62,255 per annum for 4 years; Sarah Tariq got multiple acceptances from Cornell University, Amherst College and New York University on a scholarship of $55,000 per annum; Sabih Sami Siddiqui and Yasir Sarosh also got acceptances from Cornell University; Muhammad Hassan Kiani got acceptance from Dartmouth College with a full scholarship of $64,000 per annum for 4 years, Asim Hasan got multiple acceptances from Duke University, Tufts University, Amherst College and Middlebury College all on a full scholarship of $55,000 per annum for four years; Farrukh Khan Jadoon got acceptances from Duke University with a full scholarship of $60,570 per annum for four years; Omer Farooq got acceptances from Richmond University and New York University with a full scholarship of $60,000 per annum for four years; Mahnoor Din Malik from Swarthmore College with a full scholarship of $54,000 per annum for four years, Usman and Junaid from Baits College on $54,000 per annum, Saad Shukran in Union College on $51,000 per annum, Zunaira Komal from Washington University on $56,000 per annum, Haider Inam from Boston University on $51,000 per annum, Alizeh Zaman and Minnal Abbassi from Mount Holyoke College on $55,000 per annum, Rumman Waqar from Colgate College on $57,000 per annum, Saim Ali Kazmi from New York University on $55,000 per annum, Iqra Naqvi from UC, San Diego on $50,000 per annum, Shahzaib from UC, Santa Barbara on $56,000 per annum, Muneeba Alam from Connecticut College on $54,000 per annum, Iqra Khan from St. Lawrence University on $51,000 per annum. The scholarships for Canada and the rest of the world will be announced shortly.

High-Achiever Anjum Malik, while speaking on the occasion, said: "At Roots, we are constantly reminded not to limit our challenges, but to challenge our limits and achieve the unachievable. It may come as no surprise that such doctrine, together with an outstanding mentor like Khadija and the dynamic staff has made every student a high-achiever, global leader and a model citizen, I for one could not have gotten so far without such a stellar institution on my side," she said.

RSS Founder Riffat Mushtaq, along with Colonel (r) Mushtaq Rasool Chaudhary, congratulated all students. The news

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