LAHORE: The Punjab University syndicate on Wednesday approved sale of 80 kanal of its land to the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) to construct a 220kV grid station near Mustafa Town amid protests by teachers’ representatives.

The land has been sold at Rs8 million per kanal and the NTDC will make the payment in advance.

The syndicate took this decision at its 1,725th meeting held on Wednesday. It was attended by 12 members of the body and its chairman, Vice Chancellor Prof Zakaria Zakar, and the decision to give away the land was made with a majority vote of eight against four. Elected faculty members of the syndicate, including Prof Dr Sajid Rashid, Dr Mahboob Husain, Dr Javed Sami and Dr Abdul Majid Rana, resisted the move.

The piece of land in question is located near Mustafa Town next to Mumtaz Bakhtawar Hospital. Out of the 80 kanal being sold, 60 would be used to build a grid station and 20 for roads and routes.

Four body members to move court against decision

Sources said the NTDC would construct the grid station on half of the land and build a residential colony on the remaining portion. The company usually gives residential facility to its staff near grid stations.

Dr Husain said they did not know why the government always had its eyes on the university land. In the past, he said, the government had forced the varsity to hand over land either for extending roads, the Metro train or a grid station.

Dr Sami said they would protest the handing over of land to the NTDC and not allow it to build anything. They would move the court to stop the university administration from using the land for any purpose but education and also demand compensation for the varsity land acquired in the past.

In a statement, Punjab University (PU) spokesperson said a specific lobby wanted to pressurise the administration through ‘blackmailing’. He claimed that syndicate members Dr Sami and Shumaila Gul had never resisted surrender of land to the government for extending the Maulana Shaukat Ali Road, but in fact unanimously gave their consent to it.

“Some of them want to be appointed on important administrative posts, seek overseas scholarships they are not entitled to, and out-of-merit promotions,” the spokesperson alleged.

He said the protesting syndicate members should know that the authority to surrender land rested with the body and not the VC. If these teachers thought the administration was spreading misinformation regarding ownership of the land, they must produce land documents proving the varsity owned the land.

Other decisions that the syndicate approved included proposal to regularise services of 105 employees from grade 1 to 5 with five-year service, reinstatement of Dr Shahid

Sameeni as director at institute of geology, appointment of Dr Farah Malik as director of institute of applied psychology, setting aside of representation of Dr Saima Dawood against her, appointment of Dr Sajid Rasheed as controller of examinations, all recommendations of the previous selection board at its various meetings from 2014 to 18. It also ordered to proceed against Dr Shahid Ghazi under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act for his alleged involvement in administrative and financial irregularities.

PROTEST: PU employees held a protest outside the vice chancellor’s office during the syndicate meeting. The protesters were owners and residents of Punjab University Housing Scheme Town II.

The demonstrators alleged that the funds collected by employees for their housing society were being used for Town I, the housing society for teaching staff.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2018