0
LAHORE, July 14: The government will keep in view the education standard and the interest of students in the setting up of new universities and awarding of charter and a legislation will also be carried out for the purpose. This was stated by Punjab Education Minister Imran Masood at a meeting of the committee constituted for evolving rules and regulations for the universities.
Higher Education secretary Nazir Saeed, former chief secretary Javed Qureshi, Engineering University vice-chancellor Mohammad Akram, law secretary Shaikh Ahmad Farooq, additional education secretary Chaudhry Akram and Dr Shahid of the School of Economics also attended the meeting.
The minister said while granting permission for the establishment of new universities, the standard laid down by the Higher Education Commission for the purpose would be kept in view and special attention would be paid to the availability of land, qualification of staff as well as financial status.
The meeting gave approval to the rules and regulations of universities. The draft of the Punjab Higher Education Regulatory Authority Act prepared by Advocate Masood Khan was also presented in the meeting which will be reviewed by the sub-committee headed by the law secretary. The draft will be later presented in the Cabinet meeting for approval.—APPscam probe transferred to NAB
BAHAWALPUR, July 14: The probe into Rs3.3 million alleged scam in postal stamps in the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education has been transferred to the National Accountability Bureau from Anti-Corruption Establishment. It is learnt through reliable sources that a NAB team has taken charge of the inquiry, earlier being conducted by the ACE, which had identified a number of BISE employees for their involvement in the alleged scam.
The Punjab government had also conducted a separate probe into the alleged fraud and an inquiry team comprising Rana Khalid Mahmood, Prof Nasim Baloch and Ms Fakhra Tabasum had issued a charge-sheet to four board employees from audit branch, and a postal stamp machine operator. The accused were already on bail.
During the financial year 2000, out of total postal stamps budget of Rs2.5 million, an audit of Rs0.5 million was carried out, which revealed the alleged misappropriation of funds.
It was learnt that the practice had been continuing for the past many years, but the postal staff members inspecting the stamp machine had not mentioned any irregularity in their annual reports. This led to the scrutiny of the past years’ accounts, which revealed the alleged fraud by the board officials.
The BISE high-ups had admitted a fraud of Rs1.8 million and the board paid Rs1.3 million to the postal department, while an amount of Rs0.5 million was still disputed. Some board officials were also arrested but were later released. — Correspondent
