VC wants to make BZU top-tier varsity

Amin tells varsity’s Lahore sub-campus students not to worry

MULTAN: Students enrolled at the Lahore sub-campus of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) need not worry about their degrees,

BZU VC Tahir Amin said on Thursday.

The VC made the remarks while speaking exclusively to The Express Tribune. Talking about the ongoing controversy regarding the status of degrees awarded by the varsity’s Lahore sub-campus, the future of students enrolled at the campus would be safeguarded in line with the directives of the provincial government. He said both the varsity and the sub-campus’s owner were responsible for this. Amin said all students enrolled there would be in a position to graduate in accordance with the varsity’s rules and regulations.

He said rampant corruption had wreaked havoc across many public departments. Amin said the time was ripe to eradicate it. The VC said he had been assigned the responsibility of overhauling the varsity while ensuring transparency and merit. Amin said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had extended his support to him on account of his desire to make BZU south Punjab’s foremost educational institution. He said all varsity officials would be held accountable. Amin said no individual would be allowed to compromise the future of students. He said this would be ensured at the varsity and all of its sub-campuses in Lahore, Layyah, Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan.

The VC said administrative positions at the varsity had earlier been doled out at a whim. He said people with impertinent skill sets had been employed across a range of positions at the varsity. Amin said particularly pressing was the practice of rampant nepotism at the university. This, he said, had been completely eradicated.

In another six months, a PhD in civil engineering would only teach engineering and not subjects like business administration and computer science, the VC said. Amin said he wanted the BZU to become a leading institute.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2016.