National Internship Programme placement letters

NIP 2010, delay in HEC verification process
Islamabad, March 04: Owing to delay in verification process, thousands of graduates are eagerly seeking for their placement letters under the National Internship Programme (NIP) of Ministry of Youth Affairs.

The process of two NIP badges has been completed but still majority of the graduates could not get their selection letters. Despite the passage of deadline of Feb 28, Higher Education Commission's affiliated universities failed to complete the verification process.

It is relevant to mention here that the process of online verification is considered an easy and simple process but negligence on the part of authorities concerned made this procedure much hectic and complicated. To know the status of their applications these graduates can be seen standing outside different departments of the government in long queues.

According to the process, the relevant ministry forwarded all the applications to Higher Education Commission (HEC) for verification purposes. Later HEC forwarded them to relevant institutes. But there are no standing operators procedures in this regard and weak contact of these official bodies caused unrest among these jobless graduates of the country.

HEC did not bound its associated universities for fast verification process due to which a fair number of well educated youth of the nation is forced to go from one office to other. A group of students hailing form Malakand and Bajaur said, "It is not an easy task for us to know the status of our applications, as HEC officials turned their landline numbers on answering machines," adding, "When we visit them at their offices no one is ready to solve our miseries.

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Postal Dept asked to deliver roll no slips
Lahore: The Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISE) management has requested the Postal Department to make special arrangements for the delivery of roll number slips to the private candidates appearing in secondary school certificate (Matric) examination scheduled for March 13, a BISE official said on Wednesday.

It may be mentioned that the two-week long pen-down strike of the Board employees had effected the in time delivery of the said roll number slips.

Sources in the BISE said that the strike prolonged due to non-cooperative attitude of the Higher Education Secretary towards the Board employees. They claimed that no talks were held with the strikers rather they were extended threats and detained by the Higher Education Department, which delayed the office work at the Board.

Sources in the Punjab Civil Secretariat were of the view that the protesters were mishandled by the Education Department which prompted resentment at highest level in the province. They further said that certain anonymous applications against the HE Secretary had also been received at the Punjab Chief Minister's Secretariat.

When contacted Board Chairman Muhammad Akram Kashmiri said that SSC Examination would be conducted as per schedule while the Postal Department had been requested to make special arrangements for the delivery of roll number slips to the private students. Slips of regular students would be sent to their schools in bulk, he added. He said that more than two lac students would appear in the examination and most of them would be on regular basis while others as private candidates.

The Chairman further said that IG Police had been requested to ensure security of the examination centres especially those located in sensitive areas and are 50 in number. He added that credibility of the invigilators was being checked through institution heads, EDO concerned and finally by the special branch.

A good number of monitoring teams would be deployed to check the transparency of the examination system, he concluded. The nation

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NCA principal appointment
Lahore: Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan of the Lahore High Court has sought a reply from the federal education ministry and the board of governors of the National College of Arts (NCA) on a petition challenging the appointment of college's principal by March 25.

The judge also sought a reply from NCA Principal Nazish Ataullah.

Petitioner Qaisar Javed, through his counsel, Khwaja Saeedul Zafar, submitted that the respondent was not qualified to hold office of the principal.

He stated that according to the criterion, the principal should have a masters degree along with professional experience of at least 22 years while maximum age limit for the post was 55 years. Whereas, he pointed out, the respondent principal was not a Masters degree-holder and was 57.

He asked the court to declare the appointment of the respondent null and void and direct the authorities concerned to fill the vacancy strictly on merit.

Meanwhile, a three-member LHC bench allowed a petitioner to withdraw his petition challenging eligibility of Shahbaz Sharif to hold office of the chief minister after, what he claimed, the Supreme Court directed him to do so.

Shahid Orakzai, a freelance journalist, filed an application, saying that his petition on the same subject was pending before the Supreme Court (SC) that had directed him to withdraw his petition form the LHC. The SC will resume hearing in Sharif's eligibility case on March 18.

The petitioner had sought disqualification of the chief minister since June 21, 2008, after he was elected unopposed from PP-10, Rawalpindi.

The petitioner alleged that Sharif won by-elections from PP-48, Bhakkar, and became the chief minister. Later, he also contested the by-elections from PP-10, Rawalpindi, and was elected unopposed but he resigned from this constituency. Orakzai claimed that under Article 223 (4) of the Constitution, if a person was elected from a new constituency, his earlier seat fell vacant.

He alleged that the constituency of PP-48 was still lying vacant, therefore, Sharif was not entitled to hold the office of the chief minister.

plea dismissed: Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition challenging the process of calling fresh nomination papers from candidates for by-election in NA-123, and jurisdiction of the election commission to reschedule the election.

Dismissing the petition, the judge observed that no illegality was found on part of the Election Commission of Pakistan regarding announcement of fresh polls for NA-123. It just changed the polling date.

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Dawn Education Expo
Lahore: Hundreds of the candidates seeking foreign qualification visited the Dawn Education Expo 2010 on Wednesday and met the representatives of a wide range of top educational institutions in the world.

The two-day Dawn Education Expo 2010 began at Pearl Continental Hotel, with over 80 world's top universities offering academic programmes to the students, who came as individuals, groups, as well as students' visits organised by their schools. Candidates got themselves registered with various universities to process their applications for admission to the programmes of their choice.

The universities offer wide range of academic programmes including business, engineering, accounting, information technology, fashion, sports, healthcare, arts etc.

Cardiff University representative Osama Jawad said that visitors showed great respect to foreign qualifications and got themselves registered. He stressed that there should be public awareness about foreign education and scholarships available by the Pakistan government itself.

At Cardiff, according to a survey, 70 per cent Indians and only two to five per cent Pakistanis joined the university and 90 per cent of the Indians were on government scholarships or bank loans.

He said women visitors asked about accommodation, while male students wanted to know about jobs after Cardiff qualification.

A representative of AusAid Pakistan Scholarships programme said the programme was contributing to strengthening Pakistan's human resource capacities by providing masters' level scholarships in areas aligned with Pakistan's development priorities. University of Wollongong, Dubai, representative Saira said O- and A- level students were seeking information about business and IT programmes. Bradford College's representative Suhail said students also asked about UK's new visa policies that included electronic confirmation instead of visa letter and requirement of IELTS.

A-Level student Naveed Mustafa said the varsities' representatives provided their maximum information with reference to their particular queries. "It is impossible to seek information about programmes, admission criteria, scholarships on the Internet," he added.

Another undergraduate student Muhammad Sajjad said that it was encouraging to know at this expo that he could even transfer his local credits to British universities and continue his studies there.

At the Dawn Education Expo exhibition 42 British universities and colleges, 31 Pakistanis varsities, three UAE as well as universities and organisations offering admission to Australian universities were present. The Education Expo will continue on Thursday (today) from 11am to 7pm.

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SZMC's 1st convocation
Lahore: Medical graduates are of no use unless they help provide modern treatment facilities to the poor masses of far-flung and backward areas, a handout quoted Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif as saying in Rahim Yar Khan on Wednesday.

Speaking at the first convocation of Shaikh Zayed Medical College, Sharif said doctors should serve the ailing humanity with commitment. He said it was deplorable that poor people of far-flung areas of the province were still deprived of health care.

He said the government had decided to get fresh medical graduates enrolled in the best universities of the world at its own expense.

He said the government had decided to set up five mobiles health units at a cost of Rs450 million in remote areas. He said these units would be equipped with latest treatment facilities as well as qualified doctors and paramedics. He said three of these units would work in Bahawalpur.

The chief minister said a hospital would be set up in Rahim Yar Khan at a cost of Rs300 million that would be administered by a trust.

He said Rs4.75 billion would be spent on the second phase of Shaikh Zayed Medical College. He announced house job for medical graduates and one-month salary as bonus for the non-medical staff.

University of Health Sciences Vice-Chancellor Dr Mubashar awarded degrees to the graduates.

Earlier, college principal Dr Muhammad Saeed presented address of welcome.

Separately, Sharif had a meeting with a delegation from the chamber of commerce and industry at Circuit House in Bahawalpur. He approved land for a new industrial estate in Aghapur village and installation of industrial feeder at Small Industrial Estate. Dawn

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GCU won 28 awards
Lahore: The debating society of the Government College University (GCU) has won a total of 28 awards at various national competitions in the month of February.

According to a press release issued on Tuesday, GCU's parliamentary debating teams won the English and Urdu trophies at the GIK Institute, Topi and the Urdu trophy at the Lahore School of Economics. Hamza Ijaz was also awarded the prize for best speaker in English.

GCU's declamation speakers bagged the 1st and 2nd best speaker position in Urdu and English respectively at the Lahore School of Economics' bilingual declamation. Daily times

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