Governor Sarwar assures university students of resolving issues

LAHORE:Punjab Governor/Chancellor Chaudhry Sarwar on Monday formed an eight-member committee vis-à-vis issue of students of public and private universities of the province in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak.

The Students Action Committee had given a protest call across the province starting with a protest sit-in outside the Governor House on Monday over problems in online classes, fees demand by universities, budget cuts and other issues faced by university students. However, the protest sit-in was postponed following talks with the government representatives.

The committee is headed by Secretary Higher Education Department (HED) Punjab while other members are Chairman Punjab HEC, VCs of Punjab University, UET Lahore, UHS Lahore, FJMU Lahore, University of Agriculture Faisalabad and president of Association of Private Sector Universities in Punjab (APSUP).

Talking on the occasion, Chaudhry Sarwar said that students were the future of country and steps would be taken to resolve their all issues as soon as possible. Provincial Minister for Higher Education Raja Yasir Humayun held talks with Governor Chaudhry Sarwar and members of Universities Student Action Committee, including Hamza Mustafa and Sibt-e-Hassan at Governor House. They apprised them of the problems faced by the university students due to the corona crisis.

The governor said the education sector had also suffered a loss due to the corona crisis where other sectors had been affected. “I have set up a committee headed by the Secretary Higher Education Department (HED) which will start its work from today (Tuesday).” The committee will prepare a full report on the issues facing universities and students. After which we will ensure steps to solve the problems faced by the students.

On July 2, the federal government has also convened an important meeting on the issue of closure of educational institutions. All the issues will be discussed in the meeting, he said. Ch Sarwar lauded the role played by the medical universities of Punjab during Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the Punjab University Academic Staff Association (PUASA) condemned the formation of committee in which Secretary Higher Education Department has been made convener and Punjab Higher Education Commission Chairman and senior vice-chancellors would work as members under the secretary. PUASA announced not to extend any cooperation with the committee, which has been mandated to discuss issues with “stakeholders”.

In a press statement, PUASA President Prof Dr Mumtaz Anwar Chaudhry declared the notification an attempt to bring vice-chancellors under the clutches of bureaucracy. He said it was deplorable that PHEC chairman and vice-chancellors of big public sector universities, who are retired teachers as well, had been directed to work under the chairmanship of the secretary. He alleged that the government was not giving respect to the teachers and through such attempts it was insulting senior academicians, scientists and researchers. He said the government must know that no nation had progressed without giving respect to the teachers. He said that how it was possible that grade 22 vice-chancellors would work under the grade 20 officer? He said it was astonishing that the government did not include any representation from any organisation of public sector universities while it had included representation from the private sector.