Baligh seeks teachers’ role in ending hate speech

LAHORE: Punjab Governor/Chancellor Punjab University Muhammad Balighur Rehman has said that the teachers should play their role in eliminating hate speech in the country, promoting the culture of tolerance and building qualities of a good character among students.He expressed these views while presiding over the 359th meeting of the Punjab University (PU) Senate at Senate Hall, Old Campus here on Thursday. On this occasion, PU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood, Registrar Tasneem Kamran, Syndicate members, heads of departments and professors were present.

Addressing the meeting, Muhammad Balighur Rehman said that there was a need to focus on character-building and training of students along with imparting quality education. He said that the youth has to be advised that they have to adopt honesty, ethics and truth in every field of life. He said that hate speech was not allowed anywhere in the world, but our young generation had been given the wrong impression in some aspects of life that they were right and all others were wrong. He said that the culture of tolerance should be promoted among the youth and they should be taught to respect difference of opinion.

The governor said that due to the promotion of hate politics, the youngsters desecrated the memorials of martyrs who got Nishan-e-Haider, sacrificed their lives for our beloved homeland and shouted hateful slogans against the opponents even in Madina. He said that this was a tool of the enemies of the country to spread disappointment among the next generation. He said that social media must be used with immense care and one should verify facts before forwarding any post. He said that Punjab University was the biggest and oldest university in the region where more steps should be taken to promote quality education.

He said that for the development of any institution, its merits and demerits should be known so that matters can be improved. He said that universities have to adopt various measures to deal with their financial problems. He instructed the Punjab University administration to prepare a master plan. He said that universities should establish Zakat funds for needy students. He said that the institutions should keep close contact with their alumni and their achievements should be celebrated at the official level. He said that an alumni endowment fund should be established to provide scholarships to poor students.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Mehmood highlighted the ongoing educational and research activities in Punjab University. He said that Punjab University gets 73pc of its budget from its own resources and only 27pc comes from the government. He said that Punjab University was currently facing financial problems for which funding was required from central and provincial governments. He said that despite such limited resources, Punjab University was providing quality education to its on-campus 52,000 students with excellent transport, internet and providing residential facilities to 8,500 students.

He said that there were more than 1,100 teachers at Punjab University and most of them have earned their PhDs from top universities. He said that Punjab University has moved from 232nd position to 140th position in QS Asia ranking in five years despite such limited resources. He said that the role of Punjab University in the promotion of knowledge and literature was commendable and PU students had also been a part of the Pakistan Movement under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam.