In PU, the left and the right wings have a common enemy-the VC

A large number of leftist and rightist Punjab University faculty members have come together to deliver a strong message to Punjab Chief Minster Shahbaz Sharif that his decision of appointing Dr Mujahid Kamran as vice chancellor has ruined the university, Pakistan Today learnt on Thursday.
Many of the teachers’ groups with opposite ideologies are going to be competing together in the senate elections today to highlight the ‘corrupt era of Mujahid Kamran’ at PU, sources said. Their common enemy is the Teachers’ Front (TF), which is the pro-Mujahid Kamran group of teachers.
This is the first time the left and the right have come together for a cause in PU’s history. The senate, whose members will be elected today, plays a role in legislation, budget utilisations and other important affairs. However, the body did not hold a single meeting in the last 5 years and according to the members, that was because of internal disunity and lack of coordination. The warring left and the right have now decided to start a movement against the VC together in the hopes of dislodging him.
Around 579 varsity teachers will cast their vote in their favourite candidates.
“It is a shame that no session of the senate has been held since 2006,” A PU syndicate member Dr Asmat Ullah said, adding that pro-VC teachers were involved in anti-teachers activities and the community had now decided to get rid of them.

‘TRADEGY’ FOR THE
NATION
A PU professor asking not to be named said the CM had imposed a corrupt VC on the PU and he would be given a clear message after this election. He said a movement would be started against the current VC after the left and right wings win the elections together.
LAHORE: Punjab University VC Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran has said that the drama of stoppage of Higher Education Commission funds started when the commission defied the pressure of the parliamentarians and had declared their degrees fake.
While talking to a TV channel on Thursday, he said if the rulers could unite for 18th and 20th amendment, then why they were not joining hands for promotion of education? He said that the government had Rs 500 billion but the real matter was of priorities and biases.
He said the government was due to release Rs 12 billion to universities for salaries and development projects in the last quarter but the Finance Ministry had only given Rs 2 billion. He said some elements in the Finance Ministry, following the foreign agenda and interests, wanted to privatise educational institutions in order to deprive poor students of education.
The VC said the government had increased wages of employees by 50 percent and again 20 percent but did not give a single penny to the universities for them to meet their needs. He said the government had created huge financial problems for universities by withholding grants of billions of rupees. He said the universities even had to take loan from banks to pay salaries and Punjab University was facing a deficit of Rs 33 crore this year.