LAHORE: Punjab University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran has constituted a seven-member committee to decide schedule for annual elections of the PU Academic Staff Association – on the directions of the Lahore High Court.

PUASA Secretary Javed Sami, however, says the association’s executive body had removed him illegally and he had approached the civil court against the decision. He said the civil court had granted him a stay order as the association’s elected secretary could not be removed by its executive body but through the three-fourth majority in the general body meeting.

Answering a question about the LHC decision, Mr Sami said neither the varsity administration had given him the copy of the LHC order nor he was called by the LHC for his version.

Mr Sami said the PUASA annual elections could only be scheduled by the secretary besides constitution of the election committee to hold polls.

He said he reserved the right to move the superior judiciary.

The VC’s constituted seven-member committee headed by Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences Dean Prof Dr Zakria Zakir comprises Prof Dr Hasan Mobeen Alam, Prof Dr Iqbal Chawla, Azam Shafiq, Syed Muhammad Fareed, Imran Alam and Omer Nawaz.

Meanwhile, the PUASA executive body has issued a joint statement that ASA President Dr Ahsan Sharif and Secretary Javed Sami have lost confidence of PU teachers while Shumaila Gul has become assistant professor and doesn’t have the right to represent lecturers in PU Syndicate anymore.

Executive committee members Dr Mahboob Husain, Dr Muqeet Javed, Faheem Aftab, Farhan Chaudhry, Abdul Jabbar and others said the ASA president and secretary had failed to call meeting of the association and announce the election schedule.

The committee stated that the PU teachers had to move the Lahore High Court. “The ASA president and secretary are circulating baseless letters to misguide teachers’ community,” the joint statement said.

Meeting: The Nur Centre for Research and Policy is organising a consultative meeting as part of its Research and Advocacy Study School Health Programme on Jan 13 at Fatima Memorial Hospital, Shadman, Lahore.

Some 30 representatives from government programme offices, private sector, NGOs/INGOs like Unicef, UNHCR WHO etc. and Community Support Response groups are scheduled to take part in the event.

The objective of the meeting is to bring together a few of the leading consultants, experts and policy makers from these sectors to identify a way forward for advocating for institutionalisation of Special Health Programme (SHP) in Punjab and form an alliance to help improve the health and nutrition of school-going children in Punjab.

A Nur Centre spokesperson says the consultative meeting will help the stakeholders to understand their role for effective and sustainable school health promotion and encourage suggestions on evidence-based policy changes.

Published in Dawn January 8th , 2014

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