BZU without vice chancellor
Multan: No one will officiate as vice-chancellor of the Bahauddin Zakariya University on Wednesday (today) since the Punjab government has failed to appoint a new vice chancellor.
The incumbent vice chancellor relinquished his duties after a three-month extension of his tenure expired on Tuesday.
The government had given a three-month extension to outgoing vice chancellor Dr Muhammad Zaffarullah on the completion of his four-year tenure on Jan 26.
"I cannot continue the job without any direction from the authorities and I have relieved my duties as vice- chancellor" said Dr Zaffarullah.
He said the University Act was silent over the issue of non-appointment of vice chancellor.
"Earlier, the governor would appoint an acting vice chancellor. Now the procedure has been changed and extension is not possible as the first the summery for the extension will be prepared and moved to the chief minister for approval," he said.
He said a summary for the appointment of a vice chancellor had already been sent to the chief minister by the Punjab Higher Education Commission for consequent recommendation of the chief minister and orders by the governor/chancellor.
Sources said a panel of three aspirants of the university's vice chancellor slot was with the chief minister Punjab and the decision is yet to be taken.
Provincial Higher Education has proposed Dr Muhammad Zaffarullah, Dr Zaffar Iqbal Jadoon and Dr Syed Khwaja Alqama for the vice chancellor slot.
Dr Muhammad Zaffarullah is the outgoing vice chancellor of the university and Dr Zaffar Iqbal Jadoon is the professor of administrative sciences at Punjab University while Dr Alqama is the professor of political science and international relations in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Bahauddin Zakariya University, is currently serving as Pakistani Ambassador to Yemen on deputation.
Teachers' college project scrapped
Layyah: The Punjab government has scrapped a project to establish a teacher education college in Layyah for which a Rs100 million fund was allocated in 2005.
Now, a sub-campus of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) has been launched on the campus where postgraduate classes of social science and pure science will be taught.
In 2005, then Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) government approved Rs100 million University College of Education project to provide good quality teachers to Layyah, Muzaffargarh, Bhakkar and other adjoining districts.
Tenders for the construction of university's building were invited in April 2006 and the building was to be completed in 12 to 18 months.
With the change of guards in Lahore after February 2008 elections, financial problems snagged the teacher college project and work on the near-completion project was stopped. At that time, Rs5 million were needed to complete the college.
Layyah has the lowest literacy rate in Punjab and 45 per cent of the children are not enrolled in schools for untrained teachers make classrooms a dreaded place for them.
In 2011, the Punjab government revived the project and converted the teacher education college into the Bahadur sub-campus of the BZU. Member of the National Assembly from PML-Q Bahadur Khan Sehar says the chief minister did so only to please a PML-N MPA.
The delay of the project increased the cost from Rs5 million to Rs23.113 million and recently the Punjab Finance Department released the amount from the Southern Punjab Development Programme to complete the BZU sub-campus. Educationists call the decision "unwise and wastage of funds".
According to educationist Prof Nawaz Siddiqui, post-graduate classes of social and pure science subjects are already being held in the colleges of Layyah and Kot Sultan and soon degree colleges of Karor and Fatehpur will also start master classes.
He said there were no teacher education institutes from Chakwal to Multan and the proposed institute of education would have produced trained teachers. He said good quality teachers could bring about a visible change in society. He said the proposed institute would have produced teachers with better English communication skills.
MNA Sehar says the constitution of Pakistan guarantees that the state will provide basic education to all citizens while those who can afford get higher education.
District PML-Q President Chaudhry Samiullah has appealed to the chief justice to take suo motu notice of the issue. Dawn
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