LAHORE:Participants in a panel discussion stressed the need for strengthening local government system for resolving public issues at the earliest.

The discussion on ‘how the poor are excluded from social mobility’ was held at the Department of Economics of the University of the Punjab on Monday.

Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) Vice Chancellor Dr Nadeemul Haq, Women Democratic Front (WDF) member Tooba Syed, Advocate Usama Khawar, Awami Worker Party (AWP) member Ammar Rashid and PIDE Zia Banday, PU Department of Economics Chairman Prof Dr Mumtaz Anwer, faculty members and students were present on the occasion.

Dr Haq said freedom should be given in the cities and anyone should be allowed to open shop or other businesses in its surroundings which would generate job opportunities for the people. He said there was no place for schools and when people build it in residential colonies, the government institutions start taking action against them and the number of schools went down.

“If there is no school, then it construction should be allowed anywhere and there should be no specific place for it,” he said.

Mr Haq said there were no public libraries, community centres, gardens and grounds in the city where children, youngsters and others should go and study, play and organise functions. He said public places would facilitate social mobility and it would educate the people on how to work in a team, bringing about progress in the city.

He stressed the need to bring about change in the mindset of the people for construction of high rises for controlling spread of cities. He called upon the universities to do research for resolving social issues being faced by society. He bemoaned that the bureaucrats did not benefit from research while dealing with social issues.

Dr Banday said the people should come forward for resolving their own issues.

He said strengthening of local bodies would help resolve the issues with the participation of the people of the locality concerned.

Ammar Arshad stressed the need to provide affordable residential facilities for the working class.

EXAMS SCHEDULE: PU Examinations Department has issued the schedule of admission fee and forms for MA/MSc, Part-I and Part-II, annual examinations 2020.

According to details, for regular candidates, the last date for submission of MA/MSc, Part-I admission forms with single fee is 5-3-2020 (by post) and 12-3-2020 (by hand) while the forms can be submitted with double fee till 10-3-2020 (by post) and 17-3-2020 (by hand).

The last date for submission of MA/MSc, Part-II admission forms with single fee is 28-2-2020 (by post) and 9-3-2020 (by hand) while forms can be submitted with double fee till 6-3-2020 (by post) and 13-3-2020 (by hand).

For late college candidates, the last date for submission of MA/MSc Part-I admission forms with single fee is 5-3-2020 (by post) and 12-3-2020 (by hand) while the forms can be submitted with double fee till 10-3-2020 (by post) and 17-3-2020 (by hand).

The last date for submission of MA/MSc, Part-II admission forms with single fee is 28-2-2020 (by post) and 9-3-2020 (by hand) while forms can be submitted with double fee till 6-3-2020 (by post) and 13-3-2020 (by hand).

For private candidates, the last date for submission of MA/MSc Part-I admission forms with single fee is 19-3-2020 (by post) and 26-3-2020 (by hand) while the forms can be submitted with double fee till 24-3-2020 (by post) and 31-3-2020 (by hand).

The last date for submission of MA/MSc, Part-II admission forms with single fee is 5-3-2020 (by post) and 16-3-2020 (by hand) while forms can be submitted with double fee till 12-3-2020 (by post) and 24-3-2020 (by hand). Detailed schedule is also available at PU website www.pu.edu.pk.

LCWU: The Lahore College for Women University’s Department of Mass Communications on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Strengthening Participatory Organisation to foster academic collaboration for developing contemporary programmes to help cultivate more talent in the field.

The MoU was signed by LCWU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Bushra Mirza and SPO Regional Head Shahnawaz Khan.

Ms Mirza said innovative programmes were launched to equip the students with the professional skills to thrive and prosper in the ever-changing socioeconomic environment. She said there was a need to nurture talent to support the growth of the innovative ideas in media industry and digital technology in Pakistan.

Mr Khan said the MoU would allow both the parties to work closely for developing professional experts in media and digital world. He said it would strengthen the students of media studies, including academic exchanges and organising relevant activities.

The parties agreed to collaborate in making efforts to facilitate each other in organising training workshops for the capacity-building and enhancement of conceptual clarity for students (seeking towards professional career making) on Media and Conflict resolution, Visual production, Audio production, Advertising, Development Communications, Print, Public Relations, Digitalisation etc by utilizing expertise of SPO as an academic support programme. Both will facilitate each other in undertaking academic awareness raising programs, i.e. seminar, lectures, orientation sessions, conferences, special lectures, discussion forums etc within and outside university.

The SPO would organise and facilitate internship programmes for students of LCWU Department of Mass Communication on a yearly basis and award certificates to the students who will complete the minimum eight weeks internship programme. This MoU will remain in effect from Jan 13, 2019 to Jan 2023 (3) years.

DAANISH SCHOOL: As many as 13,364 students (boys and girls) appeared in entrance test for 1,760 seats of sixth class in 16 Daanish Schools of the province.

The test of 11,700 was conducted at various campuses of Daanish Schools. Each Daanish School would give admissions to 110 students (Boys and Girls).

As many as 1,662 students appeared for 218 seats allocated of other provinces, including KP, FATA, Baluchistan, Sindh, AJK, PATA (Punjab) and Cholistan. The entrance test for 32 seats for Gilgit Baltistan students will be held Feb 16.

Punjab Daanish Schools and Centres of Excellence Authority Vice Chairperson MPA Sumaira Ahmed said the confidence of the parents in Daanish Schools was increasing day by day due to excellent academic results and exceptional residential facilities. She said the number of applicants for admission to Daanish Schools had increased.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2020