Quaideen fetes new VC

Islamabad: The reception organised by Quaideen, the Alumni Association of Quaid-i-Azam University, to welcome the new Vice-Chancellor Dr Muhammad Ali, invigorated a new vigour and showed a ray of hope to the old students who had seen their alma mater undergoing multiple crises in the past some years.The ceremony held at Comsats Auditorium was attended by scores of senior Quaideen many of whom had been or still are VCs of different public and private universities of the country. Dr Muhammad Ali despite his background in biological sciences has a nag for Urdu and Punjabi poetry and intersperses his talks with couplets from like Bulleh Shah, Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, Faiz and Faraz and this reception was no exception.Dr Ali said that he was doing a baseline analysis of situation at QAU. He said that land grabbing was the No 1 issue for the University. He said that in addition to resistance from employees occupying university land, he got a life-threatening letter yesterday. He lamented that out of 1700 acres of QAU land, 209 acres are under illegal occupation of 22 katchi abadis. He referred to animals of the illegal occupants and surrounding areas destroying landscape.He broke the news that Rs2.7 b grant had been approved and the amount will be released in March. He said that a PC-1 of Rs8 billion had been submitted. He regretted that no repairs were carried out at the Campus in the last 38 years. He said that another PC-1 of Rs600 m for repairs also submitted. He said that we are looking into carrying out roof treatment of the leaking buildings. A PC-1 of 1,500 seats auditorium also submitted. He said that the university needs c footpaths.The VC appreciated Alumni efforts and announced to establish an International Relations Centre at the Campus with the help of Alumni. He said that the university is vibrant and he attended 25 functions in 27 days since joining. He said that we have to groom students to work for a progressive-looking Pakistan. Improving teaching and research is also a challenge for which we will develop infrastructure. He vowed not to do anything wrong and to treat QAU as his own alma mater. He said that he will follow issues professionally. He said that after land grabbing and teaching was the issue of resource mobilisation. He asked Academic Staff Association and faculty to keep university working and peaceful so that he could spare time to bring money from outside.A lady participant said that an economist had destroyed this university. She said that area of Botanic Garden of QAU had been reclaimed on which a participant quipped that former Senator Nayyar Bokhari is still occupying university land.She said that we need quality and not quantity in Education. She opined that education system is being destroyed with planning. She said that induction of Intermediate pass students in a Centre of Excellence was eroding maturity at the Campus. She also criticised outlook of QAU which at one time was so beautiful and had nice flowers, plants and greenery. “A highway to beauty has now become a highway to kachra,” she said.Earlier, Rai Sikandar, president of the Alumni Association asked the VC to complete the boundary wall to tackle land-grabbing issue and assured full support of the Alumni.Murtaza Noor, Secretary of the association said that QAU is defamed in the media even if incidents take place outside Campus. He said that the superior judiciary has now ordained that the institutions should not be named in the media or he press must seek official version if name is published. Dr Tahir Hijazi, Talat Khursheed, Dr Sakhawat Shah, Dr Junaid Zaidi, Dr Abdul Basit, Dr Rauf-i-Azam and Farzana Altaf Shah also spoke on the occasion.

from The News International - Islamabad http://bit.ly/2T4a9eO