Punjab PhD scholarships | PU bus crushes youth
Punjab government to offer 5 PhD scholarships to civil servants
Lahore, June 11: The Punjab government will sponsor five PhD scholarships in foreign
universities in the next academic session for the capacity building of
civil servants in policy making. Sources said that the
Chief Minister's Secretariat had allocated Rs 15.7 million in the next
financial year 2009-10 to initiate the scheme for civil servants
serving in the province. They said the scholarships were originally
meant for officers of the provincial services (PCS, PMS and PSS), but
the CM's Secretariat had now reserved two of the five scholarships for
officers of the District Management Group (DMG). BS-18
officers less than 42 years in age, with a Masters degree from a
foreign university, would be eligible for the scholarships, the sources
said. The Planning and Development Board (P&D), in the
second week of May, moved a summary to the CM stating that the
government was hiring the services of professionals with doctorates as
consultants in formulating policies. The sources said the summary
stated that the consultants cost the government a hefty amount, and
lacked empirical knowledge of the local dynamics of delivering services
to the people. These consultants often relied heavily on foreign
methods of formulating policies. They completed the task at hand and
did not leave any mechanism to follow the results. The sources
said the P&D observed that in order to create a pool of qualified
and professional policymakers in the province, it was worthwhile to
consider a scheme of PhD scholarships for civil servants. The P&D
recommended that the scholarships must be offered to a select group of
civil servants on a highly competitive basis. The P&D recommended
that these civil servants should already have a Masters degree in
disciplines related to economic and social uplift from foreign
universities. The CM referred the summary to the Finance
Department for comments. The department observed that the scholarships
should not only be limited to economics or social policy areas, and
other disciplines like transport planning and management, financial
management, urban planning and development, and human resource
management should also be included. The Finance Department recommended
the improvement of eligibility criteria in view of the existing
educational profile, age bracket, grades, length of service and service
cadres, the sources said. The sources said the CM's
Secretariat observed that the programme was specifically meant for
policymakers, and only civil servants working on policy formulation
should benefit from it. The secretariat reserved two of the
scholarships for DMG officers, on the condition that they would return
and serve the province for eight years. The sources said the decision
was not strange as the top civil administration was packed with DMG
officers. A number of officers alleged that the DMG officers got
a lot of such opportunities from the federal government, donor agencies
and foreign countries, but the provincial cadre had no such openings.
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Punjab issues guidelines for promotion of degree-holding government officials: No benefits for officers who studied at illegal sub-campuses
Lahore: The Punjab government has issued new guidelines for the promotion of
those public servants who attained higher qualifications from private
universities that are operating illegally and without the issuance of a
no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Punjab Education Department,
sources said. The guidelines have been circulated to
all the heads of administrative departments to streamline the mechanism
of promoting officials on the basis of degrees acquired from private
universities. On the complaints of government officials regarding
hurdles in getting promotions, the Punjab government constituted a high
power committee to prepare criteria for the promotion of officials
working in government departments, who had acquired degrees from
private universities including Al-Khair University and Preston
University. The committee was informed that various private
universities had their campuses in various districts including Lahore,
Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Bahawalpur,
Multan, Muzaffargarh and Rahim Yar Khan. The Higher Education
Commission (HEC) on September 12, 2005 declared all these campuses
"unlawful and illegal". Private universities charter: The
Education Department maintained that various universities had
sub-campuses in Punjab without the approval of the department and the
respective public-sector universities of the region. The charter of
private universities neither allows establishing and operating
sub-campuses outside the territorial limit nor does it allow
affiliation with any other institution for conducting academic courses
on behalf of the university. The committee observed that the affiliated
campuses of the private universities, which were operating without NOCs
in the jurisdiction of the public-sector universities, and were illegal
even according to their own charter. The HEC had already published a
list of the illegal campuses for creating awareness among stakeholders.
Sources said the committee directed all administrative departments that
the cases of officials who acquired higher qualification from private
universities needed to be considered on a case-to-case basis for
promotion and other matters on the following conditions. In
order to be eligible for claiming a promotion, officials claiming
degrees obtained from private universities need to have had obtained
study leave or taken permission from the competent authority to attend
classes for acquiring higher qualification. The officials are also
required to present their degrees along with original transcripts and
proof of attendance issued by the university. The campus the candidate
attended must be located within territorial boundaries of the private
university. If the degree was obtained from an affiliated campus of the
private university operating in the jurisdiction of a public sector
university, the degree would be considered invalid if the sub-campus
did not obtain the NOC of the education department. Sources said
a good number of officials obtained professional degrees from
universities but they were being declined promotion as the universities
were illegal according the guidelines issued by the Punjab government.
Every department would now outline mechanisms under the guidelines of
committee to streamline the promotion of the deserving officials. Daily Times
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PU bus crushes youth to death
Lahore: An 18-year-old youth was crushed to death allegedly by a rashly
driven bus of Punjab University in Ghari Shahu police limits on Tuesday.
Meanwhile his cousin's both legs were damaged when a vehicle hit him as he
rushed to the spot after hearing about the death of deceased Muhammad Faizan.
Faizan's all other family members were settled in Dubai for the last several
years. He arrived in Pakistan a few days back. His parents allowed him to go to
Pakistan when he expressed his wish to meet his maternal uncle residing at Misri
Shah area in Lahore. The deceased's relative Asad said Faizan left his
uncle's residence along with his cousin Salman to go to a hairdresser's shop. He
dropped his cousin at the shop and went to a local market on a motorcycle. When
he reached some yards away from the shop, a speedy bus of the Punjab University
crushed him causing his instant death. Relatives of the deceased later rushed to
the spot and found Faizan lying dead on the road. While lamenting upon the
inhuman attitude of the police and the Rescue 1122 officials, Asad said shortly
after the incident, the Rescue officials reached the spot on an emergency call
by the injured Salman. They returned back and said their job was to shift
the injured people to the hospital not the dead bodies. He said later a call was
made on police emergency 15 asking them to reach the site. Misri Shah police
officials reached there in half an hour. The police officials also went back
saying that the area where the incident took place did not fall in the
jurisdiction of Misri Shah police. He further said the victim's relatives
again called on 15 and requested them to sent the concerned police. He said the
relatives of the deceased waited for half an hour but no police official reached
there. Later they themselves shifted the body to the Mayo Hospital city morgue,
he said. The deceased's relatives launched a strong protest against the
attitude of police and Rescue 1122 asking the Punjab government and the police
high-ups to take serious notice in this regard. The bus driver, however,
fled the scene leaving the university bus on the spot. The parents of the
deceased had been informed in Dubai about the incident. No case was registered
till filing of this report. The Nation
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Members of PU committees elected
Lahore: A meeting of the Punjab University Academic Council on Monday
elected members of different committees, including Finance and Planning
Committee, Advance Studies and Research Board (AS&RB) and Oriental College
Committee. According to a press statement, PU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr
Mujahid Kamran presided over the meeting while Registrar Prof Dr Muhammad Naeem
Khan and over 100 professors of the varsity attended the meeting. During
the meeting, the Academic Council elected through secret ballot, Institute of
Administrative Sciences (IAS) Director Prof Dr Zafar Iqbal Jadoon and Institute
of Biochemistry and Biotechnology (IBB) Director Prof Dr Amin Athar as members
of the PU Finance and Planning Committee for a period of three
years. Prof Dr Mahar Saeed Akhtar, Prof Dr Abdul Ghaffar and Prof Dr
Muhammad Hafeez were elected members of the Advance Studies and Research Board
(AS&RB) for three years, as per the university rules. Faculty of
Islamic Studies Dean Prof Dr Hafiz Mahmood Akhtar and Prof Dr Zakariya Zakir
from Institute of Social and Cultural Studies (ISCS) were elected unopposed as
member of Oriental College Committee for two years. The Academic Council
after a detailed discussion also decided that Punjab University's each
department would be entitled for only one university gold medal for its basic
masters and one for its 4-years BS programme. All sponsored gold medals by other
organisations will remain intact and granted as per donors and university
policy. The meeting decided that sponsored gold medal should not be worth less
than Rs 200,000. The Council constituted a committee to improve the
syllabi of Pakistan Studies at graduation level. The VC with the consent of the
House constituted committees to review those agenda items which were opposed by
the House. PU results: The Punjab University has declared the result of
Diploma in Childhood (DCH) Supplementary Examination, 2006, MBBS, Third
Professional (Re-Organised Scheme), Supplementary Examination 2008 and MBBS,
Third Professional (New Re-Organised Scheme), Supplementary Examination, 2008.
According to a press statement, detailed results are available at the PU website
www.pu.edu.pk. The News
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One official gold medal each for BS, Masters in PU
Lahore: The Punjab University (PU) Academic Council on Monday
decided that each department would be entitled to only one university gold medal
for its Masters programme, and one for its four-year BS programme. The meeting
decided that all gold medals sponsored by donor organisations would remain in
place. It also decided that no sponsored gold medal should be less than Rs 0.2
million in worth. The council met in the auditorium of the Centre for
Undergraduate Studies. PU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran presided over
the meeting. Over 100 professors, including Prof Shaista Sonu Sirajuddin, Prof
Dr Jamil Anwar Chaudhry and Registrar Prof Dr Naeem Khan attended the council
meeting. It was the academic council's third meeting in the last five months. Daily Times
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AIOU land valued at Rs72 million
Gujranwala: The District Price Assessment Committee has fixed the price
of 12 kanals at Rs72 million allocated to the Allama Iqbal Open University
(AIOU), Gujranwala campus, and asked the university administration to deposit
one third of the price with the district government to get possession of the
land, learnt on Wednesday. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced
giving the land located in Peoples Colony to the AIOU for its Gujranwala campus
a few months ago. The district administration directed the price assessment body
to fix the price of the land. Earlier, the assessment committee had
valued the land at Rs24.7 million in 2007. After the passage of two years, the
rates of property had gone up. AIOU Regional Director Prof Mian Muhammad Aslam
said laboratories and a multipurpose hall besides offices would be built at the
land. Earlier, the AIOU has been running its Gujranwala campus in rented
buildings for the last many years. The administration faced a great deal of
inconvenience to conduct examinations and workshops. Dawn
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