Bahauddin Zakariya University operation

Police raid at BZU, dozen of students arrested
Multan, Feb 17: Police pounced upon the students of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) in the name of an operation against the 'outsiders' and 'troublemakers' living on the university premises and took into custody about 60 of them.

Some of the arrested students were detained at the Sadar police station without registration of any case and were recovered by a court bailiff.

Later, police registered an FIR against 35 students on the complaint of BZU security in-charge Malik Khalil Ahmad.

Former PSF Punjab secretary-general Iqbal Khan Pitafi said more than 60 students had been arrested during the crackdown and about 100 were injured when police baton charged them on the university premises.

He said in the politically motivated crackdown the police entered the university without chancellor's (governor) permission. He said 31 students were detained at Sadar police station, six at Alpa police station and whereabouts of the remaining students were not known.

Police started operation in the BZU hostels in the wee hours of Tuesday and arrested students from Abu Bakar, Ali, Usman and Hamza halls.

The students staged a rally to protest the police action, and the police baton charged and arrested more students. Senior police officials were present during the students' protest and arrests.

CPO Saud Aziz said the police took action on the request of the vice-chancellor and arrested 27 people out of which 25 were outsiders.

He said the vice-chancellor told the police that educational activities were suspended in the university because of the outsiders and they were creating problems for the university administration.

He said these outsiders were involved in torture of a nephew of PML-N MPA Shahid Mahmood and they threatened two students who were relatives of Makhdoom Javed Hashmi.

Vice-Chancellor Dr Muhammad Zaffarullah said educational activities were continuing without any interruption and classes were held even on Tuesday. He said he did not ask the police for any action, however, the police got permission from him before entering the university premises. He said the police arrested about 30 people and 'a few' of them were outsiders.Another university official said on the condition of anonymity that all arrested people were BZU students.

In the meantime, student Saad filed a petition in the high court for the recovery of his friends detained at Sadar police station.

A court bailiff raided the police station on the directions of Justice Mansoor Akbar Kokab and found 31 people detained there without any charges against them.

The court released five of these students and summoned the police official concerned to explain the detention.

After this episode, Alpa police lodged an FIR against 34 nominated and 15 unidentified students who allegedly attacked the police and kidnapped a police driver.

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No study, no play at Govt College
Lahore: The standard of education at the Government College for Women Choona Mandi has been constantly deteriorating due to the negligence and incompetence of the sitting principal, students and faculty members said.

The college which is in the old city near the Masti Gate has its building in the Haveli Asif Jaa and around 3000 students from old Lahore and the surrounding areas study here. Students and faculty members have strongly criticised the principal of the college, Aasiya Begum for ignoring the problems of the college and marring its reputation. They complained that the principal refused to arrange any extra-curricular activities and the standard of education was also falling.

The faculty members expressed their powerlessness, saying, "We ourselves are facing problems due to the incompetence of the principal, how can we address the issues being faced by the students?"

A student at the college said, "It is a shame that people call our college one of the worst institutions of the city." She said it is the principal who is mainly responsible for the problems of the college. She alleged that the principal could not communicate in English properly and that is why she refused to hold any extra-curricular activities at the college so as to avoid communication with people lest her incompetency be unveiled. She added that they had written complaint letters to high officials including the education minister and higher education secretary but in vain.

Another student of the college, Saima said they had requested the principal several times to arrange different events at the college but she had never entertained any of their requests saying "there is no need for them". She also said Aasiya Begum was always surrounded by male officials of the college who acted as her bodyguards and did not let anyone enter her office.

A college official said that the standard of the college was continuously falling, with the number of students failing every year being continuously on the rise. She said, during 2009, 360 students appeared for the BA/BSc examinations but only 174 passed as compared to the 216 students out of the 362 who passed in 2008.

"It is a tragedy that out of a faculty of 110, there is only one teacher with a doctorate. It is disheartening that while other colleges are looking forward to upgrading their institute's status to university level, our college is loosing its prior reputation as well."

On the other hand, Aasiya Begum said the college had no problems as academic as well as extra-curricular activities were at their peak. She said the only restrictions that she had imposed on the college were meant to improve the standard of the college and some students were only generating negative propganda.

Amjad Khan, a resident of the area said the Government Fatimah Jinnah College for Women was the main institution in the area and most of the residents preferred to send their daughters there but "my daughter told me that academic activities were nil".

Punjab Minister for Excise, Taxation, Transport and Education Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman assured this scribe that he would take notice of the situation but added he had not yet received an official complaint from the students.

"The government is doing all it can for the betterment of both public and private educational institutions of the province. We have not received any information regarding any problems at the Government College Choona Mandi but I will immediately make inquiries to know the real situation," he said. Daily times

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1,000 kanal UVAS land retrieved
Lahore: Of the 2,212 kanal land of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences on Burki Road, around 1,000 kanal was retrieved on Tuesday after some resistance by illegal occupants.

Led by Cantonment Deputy District Officer (Revenue) Saleha Saeed, a special squad of the City District Government Lahore along with area police reached Klassmarri to demolish illegal structures there. Armed men attempted to stop the squad and put up resistance but the police arrested five of them.

The Punjab government had in 1961 allotted the land at Klassmarri in Rakh Tehra Chahl to the university to set up another campus which had been illegally occupied by some influential individuals.

The university had moved the Lahore High Court which constituted a commission. Comprising judicial and colonies members of the Board of Revenue, the commission declared on Sept 29 last year that the land belonged to the university.

The university had in January filed an application with the Lahore commissioner, seeking possession or demarcation of 275 acres allotted to it and police should be deployed there.

Thanking the CDGL for retrieving the land, UVAS registrar Dr Kamran Ashraf said the university had a plan to establish the National Research Centre in Animal Sciences, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and other departments on its new campus corresponding to the needs of livestock sector in the province.

He urged the government to set up a police post at the site till the university could construct a boundary wall there. Dawn

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PU governance conference
Lahore: The Punjab University's (PU) Political Science Department will organise a conference on "Issues of Governance in Pakistan" on February 18 at the auditorium of the Biochemistry and Biotechnology Institute, according to a press release.

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LUMS research workshop
Lahore: Professor Bernhard Blumich from RWTH Aachen University Germany gave a talk on "Shrinking the MRI machine", based on his groundbreaking research, at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) School of Science and Engineering (SSE) on Tuesday.

Blumich's talk garnered a lot of attention, and was attended by many students, radiologists and other members of the medical community. Universities from across Pakistan were also able to benefit from this seminar via videoconferencing.

In his talk, Blumich spoke about the advances and challenges in shrinking the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) machine, together with its applications in chemical analysis by spectroscopy, quality control by imaging, and investigations of cultural heritage by relaxation measurements.

Despite its great advantages, the mere size of the equipment restricts the use of NMR to laboratories, as investigations in remote areas, factories and museums require portable instrumentation. Such instrumentation only becomes available if the magnet used in the machine is shrunk in size and weight.

Blumich highlighted how this step has recently been achieved with the inception of smaller magnets. NMR can now be applied outside laboratories as well. The "NMR-Mouse" consumes little power, and its reduced size also culminates in lower costs. Blumich then went on to explain several usages of this new device.

The talk ended with Professor Blumich taking questions from the audience. We are not far from a time when a portable MRI machine will be used directly to diagnose individuals in disaster-afflicted areas. Therefore, shrinking of the MRI machine is indeed a remarkable feat, and the applications and utility of the MRI will undoubtedly increase manifold.

The audience at the lecture applauded the efforts of LUMS SSE in bringing such cutting edge research to Pakistan, and hoped that such events would also be held in the future. Daily times

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Teachers staged protest demo
Lahore: A large number of schoolteachers staged a protest demonstration on Tuesday against monitoring of government schools by NGOs. The demo was organised by the Punjab Teachers Union outside the Lahore Press Club.

The protesters were carrying banners and placards also chanting slogans. They said interference of NGOs in the government schools was increasing.

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CPSP president elected
Lahore: The Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) has unanimously elected Prof Zafar Ullah Chaudhry as president of the CPSP for the fourth term in recognition of his services for the CPSP and its fellows.

Other office-bearers are Prof Abdullah Jan Jaffer, senior vice president, Prof Muhammad Dawood Khan, vice president and Prof Ghulam Asghar Channa, treasurer. The news

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