Alumni asked to raise Zakat for UET students

LAHORE:For the first time in its history, University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Lahore administration has requested its alumni world over to raise Zakat funds for its needy students as Pakistan’s premier engineering institute is under huge financial debt amounting to Rs1 billion. Cash-strapped UET Lahore foresees sharp rise in the number of such needy students when the university opens after Covid-19 related closure. “The university is under huge financial debt and is struggling to support its needy students through its own resources. It is in urgent need of your assistance,” wrote the UET Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mansoor Sarwar to the university’s alumni.

Sources in the UET said the Punjab government owed the university around Rs850 million which the university had spent on Rachna College, Gujranwala, and Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering and Technology, Multan in the past from its own resources with the promise of reimbursement of the same. “But this did not happen to date,” regretted a senior UET official while saying “The UET will be unable to pay salaries to its employees for June 2020 onwards if situation remains the same.”

The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said in order to meet the cost of running the day to day affairs of the university smoothly the UET administration utilised its development budget and presently the university was under financial debt amounting to Rs1 billion. The official said for the last seven to eight years the university received HEC grant at an average of 8.57 percent but during the current year the same was slashed by a whopping 10 percent owing to which the university’s future was put in jeopardy.

The official went on to say that 10 percent increase in salary (last year), inflation touching two digits and dollar rate going up the UET Lahore was finding it really difficult to meet its expenses and was in dire need of a bailout package from the government to ease its financial crisis. “We hope to receive some funding from the government in coming weeks as the vice-chancellor has also taken up the issue with the government,” the official said while adding “However, arranging financial resources for the UET’s needy students out of the same is not possible.” It was therefore the UET Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mansoor Sarwar decided to approach its alumni with request to raise Zakat funds for the university’s needy students.

It is pertinent to mention that currently the UET has over 9,500 undergraduate and around 5,000 graduates in over 25 academic disciplines spread over five campuses in Lahore, Kala Shah Kaku (KSK), Faisalabad, Gujranwala, and Narowal. Around 70% of these students are in the Main Campus in Lahore. In the year 2019-2020 the UET Lahore provided funds amounting to Rs124.11 million to its 3,765 students studying on need-based financial aid.