‘Historic seat of education’: Punjab University turns 133

‘Political elements disrupting campus peace for vested interests’

LAHORE:

University of the Punjab turned 133 on Sunday.

Dr Mujahid Kamran, the 43rd vice chancellor of the university expressed his resolve to improve the PU’s worldwide ranking by promoting research and to depoliticise the campus.

He said no pressure tactics by a political group, whether from among teachers or students, would be allowed to disrupt discipline on the campus or play with the future of the 39,000 students who went to PU. He accused some senior teachers of backing a student organisation for their “vested interests” to “prove their loyalty towards the party which had inducted them in the 1970s.”

“Some external political elements are backing some senior professors and students at the PU for their vested interests,” Kamran told APP.

He said he had tried his best to control the activities of banned outfits on campus. “Now they can’t organise events as freely as they used to be able to,” he said.

He said students should express their talents through co-curricular activities.

The vice chancellor said he had taken several steps to improve the faculty and research at the university. “The Faculty Development Programme is among several capacity-building projects introduced in this regard,” he said.

He said since he became vice chancellor in 2008, the university had produced more than 120 PhDs each year. He said the university had the potential to produce even more PhDs and would do so through hard work, dedication and a resolve to shun politics.

He said the university had recently introduced a campus mail system to improve coordination with the university’s 39,000 students. Kamran said the university had also improved linkages with foreign universities and had signed several agreements on student exchange, foreign language courses and cultural-educational visits.

He said the university had also reorganised its human resource department and had regularised more than 2,300 employees.

“The students and teachers and the government must work together to make sure that the PU is included among the top 200 universities of the world,” Kamran said.

The first vice chancellor of the PU was James Broadwood Lyall, after whom Lyallpur was named.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2014.