1,800 Punjab University employees promoted

LAHORE : On the directions of Punjab University (PU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad, 1,800 employees from grade 1 to 15 who have been awaiting their promotions for decades have got promotion to the next grade.

A ceremony was organised for the promoted employees at the university on Friday. Prof Niaz Ahmad, Registrar Dr Muhammad Khalid Khan, Hall Council Chairman Prof Dr Muhammad Abid Hussain Chaudhary, Resident Officer-I Malik Muhammad Zaheer, RO-II Jalil Tariq, Treasurer Rao Muhammad Tahir and Chief Engineer Faiz-ul-Hassan Sipra were also present.

Prof Niaz Ahmad said for the first time in the history of PU, such a big number of employees had been promoted. He said the promotion would be implemented since 2017 and the promoted employees would get arrears too.

The PU VC also said the employees who had not got promotion in the last around 25 years would get up to four promotions. He also announced overtime for security guards who performed duties six days a week or other employees who worked more than 40 hours a week. The VC said that he would resolve any genuine issue of any employee. The employees thanked Prof Niaz Ahmad for resolving their issues.

new centre: Punjab University Vice-Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmad performed the groundbreaking of Nasira Jabeen Centre for Governance and Policy Dialogue at the university’s Institute of Administrative Sciences (IAS).

Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences Dean Prof Dr Nasira Jabeen, Academic Staff Association (ASA) President Dr Mumtaz Anwar, Secretary Javed Sami, Chief Engineer Faizul Hasan Sipra and faculty members were present. Addressing the ceremony, Prof Niaz said it was the responsibility of the universities to provide policy guidelines to the government, all relevant institutions and society. He said the incumbent PU administration had also focused on good governance and all its principles were being followed. He said public sector institutions must work like corporate institutions.

The VC lauded the services of Prof Dr Nasira Jabeen at IAS for raising its standard and ensuring quality education and research at the institute. Prof Dr Nasira said the centre would be set up for trans-disciplinary research and dialogue which was direly needed in the country. She said the centre would provide model of governance for finding solutions to the problems being faced by the relevant sectors. She said passion coupled with profession helped achieve excellence.

Meanwhile, PU VC also inaugurated newly constructed block adjacent to the building of Institute of Business Administration (IBA). Dr Sajida, IBA Incharge, the faculty members and students were present.

The newly inaugurated academic block consists of one state of the art computer lab, five offices, one server room, three classrooms and one washroom. Dr Sajida Nisar and the faculty members thanked PU VC for extending support for IBA.

Inter exam: Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISE) Lahore has completed arrangements for Intermediate Annual Examinations 2019 starting from May 06. A spokesperson for BISE said the board had set up 577 examination centers for 360,000 candidates appearing in the exams from Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur and Nankana Sahib. The Intermediate part-II exams would be held in the first phase from May 06 to May 21 while in the second phase part-I examination would be held from May 22 to June 12.

PBIT: Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) CEO Jahanzeb Burana called on President of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group Bandar Al Hajjar during his three-day trip to Pakistan.

He highlighted the major initiatives of PBIT particularly the work introducing smart regulation in Punjab through regulatory guillotine and the efforts underway to develop ‘Innovation Parks’ that would provide the right conducive environment for technology sector to grow. Burana, being an ex-employee of the IDB group himself where he worked as a senior investment specialist, also requested the IDB president to expand the role of IDB in Pakistan and thanked him for his visit to Pakistan. The IDB president appreciated the efforts of PBIT and expressed interest in the concept of Innovation Parks. As a follow-up to the meeting, PBIT would follow up with the IDB Group’s Director Investments Hedi Mejai for exploring technical details of a possible collaboration on Innovation Parks.