Standard of education: BZU gets veterinary council affiliation

VC praises the provincial govt for its support.

MULTAN:

The Pakistan Veterinary Medical Council (PVMC) on Saturday agreed to terms of an affiliation agreement with the Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan (BZU).

Addressing a ceremony at the university, PVMC President Muhammad Arshad said the BZU “was now affiliated with the PVMC as it had met the standards set by the council.” He said Pakistan’s livestock sector was the sixth largest in the world.

“The standards at the foundation level cannot be ignored at a time when all institutions are going for international affiliations,” he added.

BZU Vice Chancellor Syed Khawaja Alqama told The Express Tribune that it took eight years for the university to meet the council’s standards. “PVMC has very high standards… I constituted a committee that expedited the process of raising standards… it worked for an entire year,” he said. Alqama also praised the provincial government for its support to the BZU.

Muhammad Ali, a former graduate, said BZUM students had staged 860 protest demonstrations across the country since 2005 to press their demand of affiliation with the PVMC. Ali, who was among the first batch of veterinary sciences graduates, said they had faced professional problems because their degrees were not recognised by the PVMC. He blamed the university’s former administration for not meeting the required standards set by the council.The university has awarded 3,800 diplomas since the department was established in 2005.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2014.