Admission on bogus certificate | PU orientation

Admission on bogus certificate: UAF judges case by a student's status
Faisalabad, June 27: In a case of gross discrimination, the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) has shown the door to a student with bogus certificate but allowed the son of a dean to continue studies despite being declared guilty of the same offence, it is learnt.

The university had enrolled 959 students in different disciplines of BSc in 2007 and sent copies of all students' certificates to the Faisalabad Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education for verification on Oct 11, 2008.

The board after painstaking process declared two certificates bogus. The certificates were submitted by Muhammad Umar Zafar, son of Dr Iqbal Zafar, dean Faculty of Agriculture Economics and Rural Sociology, and Waseem Abbas, son of Habibullah Nasir.

The board officials clearly mentioned that the certificates were not issued by them, requesting the university to take departmental/legal action besides getting cases registered with the police for obtaining admission on bogus certificates.

Documents made available to Dawn revealed that Dr Zafar's son was a student of FSc pre-engineering at the Government College University, Faisalabad, and had not passed the final examination. However, he claimed through a certificate bearing registration number 329-i-FB-2005, Roll No 058471, that he had passed the intermediate examination 2007 by obtaining 598 out of 1,100 marks.

A lecturer of the UAF rural sociology department, who works under the command of Dr Zafar, had attested Umar's certificate for admission to the university. Although the certificate shows he had secured grade 'C' in the intermediate examination and was not eligible for admission to the university, he made it to the BSc (Hons) agri-engineering thanks to his father's influence.

The university enrolled Umar on sports quota declaring him a football player and subsequently he appeared in the entrance test which he passed with good marks courtesy the officials responsible for maintaining merit.

Sources told this correspondent that the issue had baffled the university officials who were now finding ways to save the skin of the "influential student". They said arrangements were being made to afford the boy an opportunity to challenge the board information in a court of law.

Meanwhile, dean faculty of agriculture Dr Rao Iftikhar Ahmad had cancelled the admission of Waseem Abbas (hailing from Jhang) and asked him to vacate the hostel and leave the university premises immediately.

The notice issued to him read that since the student had cheated the university by producing bogus intermediate certificate, a case would also be registered with the police.

"Waseem was served with a notice to defend himself but he failed to respond to the notice as well as telephonic calls," the management took the plea.Dr Abdul Rehman Tahir, dean Agricultural Engineering & Technology (in which Umar is enrolled), said the student had been given a month to prove his innocence.

In a previous case, he said, the board had declared the certificate of a student bogus but later found it to be genuine. A few months later, the board again termed the certificate bogus much to the bewilderment of all, he said.

"We want clarity on the issue without any discrimination," he said, adding that if Umar's cheating would be proved even at final stages of his degree, he could be expelled from the university. Dawn

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PU orientation programme 2009
Lahore: The five-day faculty orientation programme 2009 for the new faculty members of the Punjab University concluded on Friday. According to a press statement, young lecturers and assistant professors from various departments of the university participated in the programme conducted by the PU Human Resource Development Centre, Institute of Administrative Sciences (IAS).

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Task force on gender parity in education on the cards
Lahore: A task force will be set up to carry out research in major areas of gender disparity in education in Punjab by Gender in Education Policy Support Project (GEPSP).

According to a DGPR handout, it was decided in a group meeting of Working Group on Gender in Education (WGGE) comprised of leading educational institutions in Punjab formed by the provincial Department of Education to support gender sensitive education policy formulation, implementation and research based analysis to ensure gender parity and equality in education.

It is pertinent to mention that the WGGE is a part of the initiative under Gender in Education Policy Support Project (GEPSP), a tri-partite agreement between the Ministry of Education Pakistan, UNICEF and DFID.

The WGGE, one day session was organized by UNICEF, in UNICEF Provincial Headquarters and attended by some of the leading academic institutions and NGOs including, GC University, Lahore College for Women University, Kinnaird College, University of Education, Beaconhouse National University, Department of Gender Studies of Punjab University, Ali Institute of Education, SAHE, and ITA.

The participants shared their experiences and expertise in research on gender in education and discussed areas for further research.

The forum was informed that three similar WGGE chapters were launched in NWFP, Sindh and at federal level. A national consortium of the WGGE is scheduled for November 2009 in Islamabad.

The national consortium will be one of the largest think tanks on gender in education in the region with research network that is established as a part of overall GEPSP, to increase the capacity for knowledge management and to ensure effective gender mainstreaming in education policy formulation, implementation, information generation and sharing with provincial and district education system. The News

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