BAHAWALPUR: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif’s announcements related to education policies and the revival of laptop schemes have been welcomed by relevant stakeholders of higher education.
This was stated by the Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB) Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Athar Mehboob while talking to reporter here on Tuesday.
He said that we are looking forward to a revival of many student-friendly and educational friendly policies by the federal government, especially the laptop scheme.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, students having laptops had a great advantage and they were able to continue their studies online. He expressed the hope that another student-friendly scheme Prime Minister Fee Reimbursement Scheme will be brought back where the 100 percent of fees paid by the student was refunded to the student.
“There are PEEF Scholarships program and Ehsas Scholarships program which provided the scholarships to thousands of students, ” the vice chancellor added.
He said that Bahawalpur was located in the Southern Punjab region and the IUB was catering to the needs of the entire Bahawalpur division and other areas of South Punjab, therefore we believe that the students of Bahawalpur need scholarships and financial assistance.
While talking about the development project, he said that approximately Rs 12 billion were being spent on these projects. “We are undertaking many schemes from our own resources and as part of our annual development programs, ” he said.
The IUB established the faculty of computing in the old engineering building by increasing the number of classrooms and laboratories while the faculty hostel for women was being built.
“We have completed the amphitheater, an extension of the Faculty of Management Sciences including the parking in addition to a new elegant artistic building of the College of Arts and Design, ” he mentioned.
He said that a faculty hostel was also being developed for married faculty members with one or two children at the most. He said that the development was also being undertaken in Bahawalnagar campus using own resources of the varsity as the second floor of the academic block and girls hostels were built using our own resources.
At the same time, we are undertaking about 4 billion rupees of development as part of a build and transfer mode and public-private partnership.
He said the university was establishing weather stations in the Cholistan desert which will help in causing rain to happen and increasing the number of rains from the present value of less than 100mm per year to 400mm every year to transform the Cholistan desert into the food basket of Pakistan.
The vice chancellor requested Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in getting the approval of this project so that we can transform and increase the arable land of Pakistan by 6.7 million acres, which is nearly 10 to 15 percent and will have an impact on the GDP of Pakistan by an amount of 5 percent to 10 percent.