According to a statement issued by the Punjab government, the event has been delayed because of the assassination of Bashir Ahmed Bilour, the senior minister in Khyber-Pakthunkhwa, who was killed in a suicide bombing claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan on Saturday. Earlier, the Punjab government announced an official day of mourning for the Awami National Party leader.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was to personally hand out 8,500 laptops to students at the PU Law College ground, as part of the Shahbaz Sharif Youth Initiative, on Monday. But the university received a call from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on Sunday morning informing them that Sharif would not be able to attend.
“We were informed that the chief minister would not be attending the event and that it was to be postponed,” said Khurram Shahzad, the university’s public relations officer. He added that no reason for the postponement was given to the university.
All arrangements for the ceremony on campus had been completed when the call regarding the delay came in, he said. “We have been instructed to hold the distribution of the laptops till the government gives us a go-ahead,” he added.
This would have been the second laptop distribution ceremony on the campus this year. According to a statement from the university, the laptops were to be awarded to third- and fifth-year students, as well as MPhil and PhD candidates, in both the morning and evening programmes. The laptops have been turned over to the departments concerned.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2012.
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