LAHORE: The 51st meeting of the University of Health Sciences (UHS) board of governors on Tuesday approved a surplus budget of Rs1.8 billion for the financial year 2022-23.

Chaired by retired Justice Tassadeq Hussain Jilani, the board also approved funds of Rs10 million, donated to the university, for relief work in flood-affected remote areas of Punjab and Sindh.

University officers and teachers will donate their one-day salary to the flood relief fund.

Those who attended the meeting included UHS Vice-Chancellor Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathore, Prof Anwaar A Khan, Pro-VC Prof Maroof Aziz Khan, Registrar Dr Asad Zaheer, and representatives of specialized healthcare and finance departments of Punjab. PTI MNA Andleeb Abbas participated through a video link.

The board set up a committee for flood relief activities with Prof Maroof Aziz as its convener, which would submit its recommendations within a week.

Ms Abbas and the representative of the Punjab Health Department would also be part of the committee.

The committee would also make recommendations to deal with the diseases that might spread in the flood-affected areas in the coming days after surveying various sites.

UHS Treasurer, Baquee bin Haneef, presented the university’s budget to the board which was unanimously approved. In the budget, Rs1.31 billion was earmarked for the City campus and Rs575.481 million for the Jinnah campus, Kala Shah Kaku.

A 15pc increase in the salaries of the employees as ad-hoc relief allowance was approved.

According to the budget estimates, the UHS will spend 10 pc of the total budget on research, and an amount of Rs12 million was allocated for specialized research.

The percentage of the city campus development budget has been kept at 17.94 per cent while Rs20 million has been allocated for student scholarships.

An amount of Rs95 million has been earmarked for the purchase of buses and coasters for students and faculty.

Funds of Rs90 million were allocated for setting up a diagnostic laboratory at the university. An amount of Rs175 million shall be spent on the conduct of around 700 examinations during the current financial year.

In the meeting, the board directed the administration to hire the services of a horticulture specialist for the landscaping of the Jinnah campus. Moreover, the approval was also accorded to incentivize the staff serving at the Jinnah campus in the form of a daily travelling allowance in the same way as the other universities were doing.

Funds were also approved for the construction of a boundary wall, roads, and the installation of a water filtration plant at the new campus.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2022