GCU’s four projects worth Rs 1.8b initiated

LAHORE : The federal and provincial governments have initiated four development projects worth over Rs 1.8 billion for the development of Government College University (GCU) Lahore.

Out of this highest-ever development funds allocation for GCU, a budget of Rs410 million is allocated for the fiscal year 2021-22 only.

The Federal Ministry of Planning and Development approved Rs1158 million for Phase-II of the GCU’s New Campus. The other three projects are reflected in Punjab’s Annual Development Programme (ADP) 2021-22. The total costs on Girls’ Hostel, Swimming Pool and Sufism Center would be Rs440 million, Rs 143.278 million and Rs 100 million, respectively.

The most prominent of the projects is establishment of Sheikh Abul Hasan Ash-Shadhili Sufism, Science and Technology Research Centre. The construction of girls’ hostel at the main campus will also fulfil the demand from GCU’s girls, and construction of the swimming pool will offer great opportunities for GCU to host international standards of swimming competitions.

The Phase-II of the New Campus at Kala Shah Kaku will substantiate the academic and extracurricular activities.

The Phase-II includes construction of academic block for 1,200 students, a hostel, residences for staff and external development works.

GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi said GCU was the most prestigious and oldest seat of higher learning in Pakistan but it had been long ignored by the consecutive governments in terms of facilities for students and expansion. He said that a campus built for a few thousand students only had now more than 14,000 students studying in more than 30 disciplines.

He said the girl students from all over Pakistan came to GCU for higher studies but, unfortunately, it had only one girls’ hostel with a capacity of fewer than 200 students, and hundreds of students had to live in female private hostels away from the campus.

The vice-chancellor said that new four-storey girls’ hostel would be constructed at the University’s Science Block with a capacity for more than 300 students.

“It would be a surprise for everyone that GCU is a winner of inter-collegiate and inter-university swimming championships, but our students have no facility of swimming pool,” Prof Zaidi said, adding, “We have to request other universities to provide their pool for the training of our teams, which we get for a very short time on their terms and conditions.”

Talking about the Sufism centre, Prof Zaidi said the centre was the initiative of the First Lady of Pakistan, Mrs Bushra Imran, and it would conduct research in the fields of Islamic philosophy, Sufism, spirituality, comparative study of religion and mystic traditions besides providing a platform for interfaith dialogues at the national and international level.