FAISALABAD, Jan 20: Students of the Government Islamia College, Sargodha Road, on Thursday demonstrated in protest against 'manhandling' of their fellows by two bus conductors.

A number of college students rushed to Sargodha Road which they blocked to traffic and demanded police action against the conductors.

A Civil Lines police team intervened and made the students disperse on the assurance of registering a case against the conductors.

The police claimed to have arrested the conductors. PhD teachers:

The Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF) has hired the services of 21 senior teachers having PhD degrees during a couple of weeks.

This was stated by recently appointed GCUF Vice-Chancellor Dr Zakir Husain while speaking at a welcome party organised by the degree college staff on Thursday.

He said: “Efforts are being made to overcome the shortage of teaching faculty as dozens of teachers from different universities will also join the academia shortly.”

He said merit would be ensured at the academia. The selection board had regularised services of a number of university teachers on merit. He said the administration would try to regularise those faculty members who were serving the institution for years on a contract basis. However, the administration was bound to advertise the seats for regular postings.

He said efforts were afoot to improve capability of the faculty and induction of PhD teachers would help in this regard. Five PhD teachers were hired for chemistry, four for economics, three for home economics, two for zoology, and one each for botany and bio-informatics.

The teachers who were hired included Dr Pervaiz Azim and Dr Riaz Ahmad Sial for economics department, Dr Hafeezur Rehman (Urdu), Dr Nighat Bhatti, Dr Rabia Shabbir Ahmad and Dr Omair Arshad (home economics), Dr Asif Malik (education), Dr Zubair Siddique (director academics and in-charge quality enhancement cell), Dr Zafar Iqbal (botany), Dr Noureen Aziz Qureshi and Dr Abu Bakr Siddique (zoology), Dr Mohammad Arshad and Dr Hazoor Mohammad Sabir (economics), Dr Tahira Yasmeen, Dr Zulfiqar Ali, Dr Tanvir Husain Bukhari, Dr Fazalur Rehman and Dr Rasheed Ahmad Kheera (chemistry). Syed Sikander-i-Azam was appointed as assistant professor at bio-informatics department.

Expressing his dismay at the poor performance of GCUF, Dr Zakir said both the Sargodha University and the GCUF came into being simultaneously. However, the Sargodha University ranked 8th among the public sector universities of Pakistan and GCUF stood at 51. FESCO:

The Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) will provide fault detectors to its line staff for early rectification of any sort of electricity supply defect.

Addressing a meeting of the Grid System Operation (GSO) employees on Thursday, Chief Engineer (Operation & Maintenance) Muhammad Ashraf said fault detectors would help early detection of faults instead of extensive patrolling to identify the spot. He said efforts were being made to improve and maintain the system to ensure smooth and uninterrupted power supply to consumers.

He said the grid system was expanding at a faster pace owing to the increase in demand for electricity. He said Fesco was spending billions of rupees on the construction of new grids and maintenance and expansion of the existing ones every year.

He directed the officials concerned that maintenance work on grid stations should be undertaken during load management. That would facilitate the consumers and save them from the hardships of load management. The deputy managers and assistant managers should stay on the site during the shutdown period for effective supervision.