Every student, official to plant trees

SBBWU VC Dr Sultana sees need of involving students in extra-curricular activities

PESHAWAR: In a bid to improve the environment, especially around campus, the vice chancellor of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University (SBBWU) Peshawar has urged each student and staff member to plant a tree within the premises of the varsity and turn it into a ‘De Gulono University’ (University of Flowers).

But the exercise would not stop at planting – as is the want of most plantation drives in the country – rather those who plant a tree would be responsible for its care as well.



SBBWU VC Prof Dr Razia Sultana told The Express Tribune that a clean and green environment would provide a suitable study environment for students, adding that the activity will begin in earnest once students and faculty return from their summer vacations

“From the vice chancellor to the student and security guard, everyone will plant a tree and each one would be responsible for the care of their tree which would be named after them,” Dr Sultana said.

SBBWU Peshawar is the first women university in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where around 3,000 students from all over the province are enrolled in 21 disciplines.

Dr Sultana said that the prolonged absence of permanent vice chancellors at certain universities of the province had affected these varsities.

“If the Abdul Wali Khan University of Mardan had a permanent vice chancellor that the time, incidents such as lynching of Mashal Khan would not have happened,” she said.

Redirecting energy

Dr Sultana urged the new heads of various varsities in the province to play their role in creating a suitable environment on their campuses by involving their students in extra-curriculum activities so that they stay away from unlawful activities.



In this regard, she said that at the SBBWU, they have dedicated periods for sport and students from every discipline are allowed to participate in a number of games.

“Sports not only make a person physically fit but it makes them mentally healthy and develops a competitive spirit,” she said, adding that most universities in the province had stopped sporting activities which was wrong.

The SBBWU official said that a university should provide a mixture of different cultures and it is the responsibility of varsity administration to provide opportunities for students to take part in which can stop students from illegal or wrong activities.

“We have not seen such type of student aggression [Mashal Khan incident] before because previously universities not only involved their students in studies but also in different kinds of competitions such as sports, debates, speeches, poetry and parties,” Dr Sultana said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2017.