PU Syndicate recommends Rs12.6b budget for varsity’s Senate approval

LAHORE : Punjab University’s Syndicate in its meeting held here Thursday recommended Rs12.6 billion budget for the approval of the university’s Senate for the year 2021-2022.

The PU Syndicate meeting was presided over by Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice, Justice Ameer Bhatti and chaired by Vice-Chancellor Prof Niaz Ahmed.

Despite facing serious financial pressure amid COVID-19, PU Syndicate decided to continue providing scholarships and subsidies to the students so that burden on the pockets of students and their parents could be reduced.

On the directions of the VC for increase in PU’s international ranking and socio-economic impact research, the Syndicate allocated Rs263 million. PU would also continue overseas scholarship scheme for teachers. The university has allocated Rs68 million for participation in moots. The meeting was told the university faced a deficit of Rs585 million which would be managed by reducing expenditures and adopting austerity measures.

The university expects a total grant of Rs3.3 billion from Higher Education Commission, 27.9 percent of the total budget while PU would generate the rest of 72.1 percent from own sources. According to other salient features of the budget, special students will also be provided with free education along with boarding facilities while students taking admission on sports basis will be provided with free education. The university will continue to waive off tuition fee of Hafiz-e-Quran.

Punjab University will provide Rs215 million scholarships to the students. Moreover, HEC scholarships worth Rs136 million and PEEF scholarships will also be provided to students. In the budget, Punjab University would continue to provide millions of rupees subsidy to the students in hostel, transport and internet heads and in addition to the above, subsidy on electricity bills in teaching departments is also being provided.

Condolences: Captain Affan Masood who embraced martyrdom, along with a soldier of Pakistan Army, Wednesday night in an IED blast was son of Dr Raas Masood Khan, former Registrar & Chairman, Department of Botany, Punjab University.

PU teaching faculty, employees and students sent their deepest condolences to the family of Captain Affan Masood Shaheed on Thursday and prayed to Allah Almighty that He grant them strength and patience to deal with this loss. “We will forever remain indebted to our brave martyrs and their families for the sacrifices they make for our country,” reads a message by Punjab University.