GUJRAT: Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Chaudhry Jafar Iqbal has sought establishment of a sub-campus of the University of Gujrat either in Lalamusa or Dinga, both major towns of his NA-106 constituency.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has directed the Punjab Higher Education Department to prepare a feasibility report in this regard.

However, UoG administration sources said the proposal could not be entertained as Lalamusa was located hardly 14 kilometres from the varsity’s city campus while the Hafiz Hayat campus was also around 20km from the town.

They said the UoG would offer pick-and-drop facility to students in the entire Gujranwala region as well as up to Jhelum and Mandi Bahauddin districts hence there was no need to set up a sub-campus in the remits of the same district.

Iqbal wanted to have a UoG sub-campus at the site of Government Elementary Teachers Training Centre in Lalamusa. He had been pressing hard the varsity administration to open the campus to accommodate the people of his constituency.

He is also a member of the UoG Syndicate for the next three years along with five other legislators from the PML-N as the members.

Although very little progress has so far been made on the proposal as the HED was yet to examine the site and hold a meeting with UoG officials, Iqbal was hopeful of getting the Lalamusa sub-campus opened.

While talking to Dawn, he said it was a right of the people to have better higher education facilities and with the opening of the sub-campus the people of Kharian and Sara-i-Alamgir tehsils would benefit from it.

He said the Punjab government had agreed to his proposal and work had started to prepare a feasibility report. He would try hard to get the sub-campus established as early as possible.

An official of the UoG, terming the idea of a sub-campus in Lalamusa futile, said the proposed site of the Government Teachers Training Centre was not feasible due to lack of space and building capacity there.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2014