CM Punjab promises Rs100 million for GCU

Lahore: Chief Minister of Punjab Mian Muhammad Shahsbaz Sharif Sharif announced Rs100 million for the Government College University, Lahore (GCU), promising the funds would be deposited with the Endowment Fund Trust of the university before the end of this week.

He was addressing the 15th convocation of the university on Thursday, where along with a lot of graduates a widow along with her little son received the doctorate of philosophy (PhD) degree of her husband. 

Rao Altaf Husain, an associate professor at the Government Science College Wahdat Road, had completed his PhD degree in Zoology just a week before his murder on November 15, 2016 in Lahore.

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Almost 1,686 students received medals, rolls of honour as well as degrees in the three sessions of the convocation.

In the first session, 216 of 386 MPhil/MS and 32 out of the 55 PhD degrees were given to female students.

In his address, CM Punjab said that the federal and provincial higher education commissions will work jointly and merge their resources for the promotion of higher education in Punjab.

He furthermore said that the government of Punjab will also provide financial aid to the Government college university for development of its Kala Shah Kaku Campus, and he will personally look into the matter that why PC-I of the project was not yet approved.

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The chief minister said that the Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF) will swell to Rs20 billion this year and will be awarding scholarships to 2,000 bright aspirants of the state.

“It is indeed the biggest endowment fund in the sub-continents,” he added.

Government College University will honour its position holders for the BA/BSc (Honours) programmes on Friday (today) at the 2nd session of the conference.

Total 1,686 degrees, to be awarded at the three sessions of convocation, also involved 895 degrees of BA/BSc (Hons) and 319 of MA/MSc, as well as 36 co-curricular and 6 sports rolls of honours.