Cuba medical students issues

Issues of medical students in Cuba resolved
Islamabad, March 11: The strike of Pakistani medical students in Cuba, which continued for more than one month, has ended and all students have once again resumed their classes after the issue was amicably resolved.

The students were observing strike, as they were of the opinion that the quality of education provided in Cuba is not up to the level of the one provided in Pakistan and they would not be able to pass the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC) examination. They had also raised their voices against the non-availability of attached hospitals with their academic institutions.

According to a press release issued by HEC, a comprehensive certificate, addressing all issues, was signed by the deputy minister of health of Cuba and endorsed by the PMDC representative, who was in Cuba for the resolution of all outstanding issues.

Following the hectic efforts by the governments of Pakistan and Cuba, the Pakistani students expressed gratitude to the two countries for securing their future.

A total of 932 students are currently undertaking medical studies in Cuba on a full scholarship by the Cuban government, which encompasses tuition, hostel facility, books, food and all other matters pertaining to the medical studies in Cuba.

The first batch of these students has completed two years of medical study along with a comprehensive course in Spanish and is ready to initiate their third year of classes, while the second batch of students is in their second year of study.

The case for the resolution of the problems faced by these Pakistani students in Cuba was taken up by the Senate Standing Committee on Health, National Assembly Standing Committees on Health and Education. All the committees worked hard to address all concerns of the students and their parents, so that the students may return to serve Pakistan as fully qualified doctors.

A delegation headed by Senator Nilofer Bakhtiar and including representatives of PMDC and HEC have been in Cuba, working with the Pakistani embassy there to find an amicable resolution of the students' apprehensions in Cuba.

The visiting delegation inspected the classrooms, teaching facilities, laboratories and living area of the students in their existing location as well as the new location. The students are proceeding to start their third year of studies along with clinical rotation. The news

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363 centres set up for SSC exams
Rawalpindi: The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) has established 363 examination centres in the four districts of Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum for the annual secondary school certificate (SSC) examinations starting from March 13.

The exams, which were earlier feared to be delayed owing to protest by employees of the eight boards against examination fee waiver issue, have been made possible after a committee headed by Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, senior adviser to Punjab chief minister, assured them of fulfilling their demands.

BISE Employees' Association general-secretary Mehr Mohammad Akbar said Mr Khosa had assured them that their demands would be addressed but the provincial government needed some time as it was short of funds.

While, the board has completed its arrangement for conducting the examination as 174,000 students would appear this year. The board has deputed 363 superintendents, 433 deputy superintendents and invigilators at each centre.

The BISE has issued the roll number slips to the students. Those who have not received their slips are asked to contact the board officials concerned. Dawn

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Girl students to take exams at their respective schools
Lakki Marwat: The Elementary and Secondary Education Department has ordered holding of annual examinations of grade III and IV girl students at their respective primary schools.

Sources said that officials of the female section of the department had planned to conduct annual examinations of grade III and grade IV girl students at a joint centre, consisting of at least nine schools.

However, the decision was strongly opposed by women teachers as well as parents of the students, who didn't want to send their daughters to far away schools for taking examinations.

The examinations are likely to start from March 15. The All Primary Teachers Association had lodged several complaints with the department and protested the decision of the female section of the department.

Taking notice of the concerns of teachers and parents the department ordered holding of examination in their schools. Dawn

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PPLA office-bearers
Rawalpindi: The office-bearers of Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association (PPLA), Rawalpindi Chapter, took oath at the Government Postgraduate College, Asghar Mall, here on Wednesday.

Government Postgraduate College (Asghar Mall) Principal Professor Alimuddin administered the oath. MNA Shahid Khaqan Abbasi graced the occasion as chief guest.

The following office-bearers took oath on the occasion.

M. Shakeel Abbasi (president) Manzoor Chohan (senior vice president) Abdus Sagheer (vice president) Ashiq Hussain (general secretary) Azhar Mehmood (joint secretary) and Sajid Khan (information secretary).

PPLA President M Shakeel Abbasi presented a charter of demands to MNA Shahid Khaqan Abbasi regarding upgradation of teachers' scales, medical allowance and regularisation of service.

Addressing the lecturers, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi stressed upon them to shoulder their responsibilities for the uplift of education.

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EIA report of NUST
Islamabad: A public hearing meeting to review the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the National University of Science & Technology (NUST) for their project 'Development Works for Establishment of NUST Campus, Islamabad' was held here Wednesday.

The public hearing was in compliance of Section 12 of the Pakistan Environment Protection Act 1997 and LEE/EIA Regulations 2000.

The meeting was chaired by the deputy director of Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) and attended by the stakeholders that included representatives from public and private sector organisations, academia, environmentalists and media persons.

The Pak-EPA deputy director in his opening remarks appreciated NUST for fulfilling legal requirements under the Pakistan Environment Act 1997 and making the proposed project environment friendly. This was followed by a presentation on the EIA report with a mitigation plan of the project.

The participants showed interest in the project and raised pertinent questions related to the rehabilitation of CDA's solid waste dumping site, waste management, water consumption/conservation in operational phase, energy conservation, vehicular traffic management and plantation of local tree species /fruit trees.

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Teacher services terminated
Islamabad: The Syrian lady teacher of the Pakistan International School of Damascus (PISOD), who went public against the Pakistani ambassador to Syria, has been shown the door, on the pretext that she had jeopardised Syria-Pakistan relations by damaging the reputation of the school.

Ms Manal Suleman, the only teacher in Syria who conducts biology practicals for senior Cambridge examination, raised her voice against the Pakistan Ambassador to Syria, Amanullah Raisani, for his interests in PISOD, nepotism and sale of shoes at the school and was issued a show-cause notice.

Though the ambassador denies the newly-appointed principal of the school is his sister, the newly-appointed staff of the PISOD is either relatives of the ambassador or the principal or of the embassy staff. These new appointees are drawing hefty packages approved by the board of governors of the school, which is headed by the ambassador. Amanullah Raisani also confirms sale of shoes at the school, saying he wanted discipline in the school.

Ms Manal was asked on Tuesday to sign her termination letter, which carried some allegations that were untrue and on her refusal to accept a termination letter containing false allegations, a text message was disseminated among parents of over thousand students of PISOD, hailing from 54 nationalities of the world regarding termination of the brave teacher's services.

The text message states, "Dear parents, we regret to inform you that Ms Manal Suleman's services are terminated for involving herself in an unethical conduct of damaging the school's reputation and jeopardising the Syrian-Pakistani relations. Ms Thanaa Ghabra will be replacing her, we advice you to instruct your children to focus on their learning."

Earlier, in her reply to the show-cause notice issued by the school run by the Pakistan embassy in Damascus, Ms Manal had stated, "The information reflected what was happening over the past months at the school, and were clear enough to be figured out without any effort. Your administration, with respect (as well as with evidence and proof), have done the school everything except the basic task of any other school, which is education."

Ms Manal Suleman says she has been disrupted and plans to knock the doors of the court. She said her career has been ruined by disseminating such a defamatory text message among over a thousand parents of students. "I stood by the truth and will always stand by it no matter come what may," vowed the lady, adding: "I hope all Pakistanis are not bad." The news

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Fake student leader
Peshawar: The People's Students Federation has demanded of the university administration to take action against a schoolteacher who is posing as a student leader.

Addressing a ceremony here on Wednesday to mark the death anniversary of their late activist Daud Khan, PSF leaders said that Aminullah Farooqui was a teacher at Agriculture University Public School but he was posing as a student leader.

They urged the administration to hold an inquiry against the employee as he was organising programmes under the banner of PSF.

Addressing the gathering PSF campus chairman Irfan Iqbal Yousafzai said that Daud Khan, a student of NWFP University of Engineering and Technology, shot himself dead in 1991 when the demand of the students regarding the cancellation of out-of-course paper was not accepted.

The students, he said, had to stand up to do away with the culture of nepotism.

They should make efforts to advance education and enable themselves to compete in this era of advancement, he added.

He said that PFS would make efforts to create an environment conducive to education on the campus.

PSF provincial chairman Ijaz Yousafzai said that the sacrifices rendered by late Daud Khan and his other comrades would not go waste.

Rehmatullah Marwat, PSF provincial general secretary, said that PPP founder Z.A. Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and other leaders shed their blood but didn't compromise on the principles.

He also demanded of the party high-ups to take action against those people who posed themselves as PSF leaders despite the fact they were not regular students of the university. Dawn

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Hindko-English dictionary
Peshawar: Professor Dr Elahi Bakhsh Awan, an eminent England-based lexicographer, linguist, research scholar, poet and writer from the Walled City of Peshawar, is carrying out work on a comprehensive Hindko-English dictionary, which will hit the market this year.

This was disclosed at a meeting of the Gandhara Hindko Board, a literary, cultural and social welfare organisation, held here Wednesday. Chairman of the organisation Professor Dr Zahoor Ahmad Awan presided the special meeting, which was also attended by other office-bearers. The participants praised Professor Dr Elahi Bakhsh Awan for compiling an earlier inclusive Hindko dictionary that signified the linguistic research conducted by the noted lexicographer, extending over four decades. They termed him an asset to Hindko.

Elahi Bakhsh, who joined the meeting through teleconference, informed the participants about his forthcoming Hindko-English dictionary. The eminent philologist, who did doctorate in Linguistics from the University of London, UK in 1974 and is now settled in London, said the dictionary would conform to international standards.

Enumerating the main features of the publication, he said the lexicon would have a main entry, pronunciation, information about the origin of the word and its grammatical status. He said proverbs would also be included in the publication along with slang, which were part and parcel of any language.

Awan, who is also Director of the Linguistic Academy of Pakistan-United Kingdom and an associate of Institute of Linguists, London, said he had already compiled a Hindko-Urdu dictionary after studying Instrumental Linguistics and products such as Sonogram, Tonogram and Pitch, etc that lent credibility and authenticity to such a publication.

The scholar said the efforts launched by the youths for the preservation and promotion of Hindko had given him additional strength to explore several other aspects of Hindko, which was an ancient language of the Gandhara region. He said he was working on an extended history of Hindko and its grammar. He hoped the 'Homeland of Hindko' and 'Hindko grammar' would go a long way towards preservation and promotion of Hindko, which was the second main language of the NWFP and sixth main language of the country.

Muhammad Ziaddin, who oversees the publication work of the Gandhara Hindko Board, told the meeting that Hindko-Urdu dictionary was great achievement of Elahi Bakhsh Awan and the board had honour to bring it into fine print. He said some technical mistakes were committed during the printing of the dictionary, which would be rectified in the next publication. He said the forthcoming Hindko-English dictionary would have the word order, pronunciation and several other words, which were collected after great efforts. The news

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