BAHAWALPUR: Saddar Police Lodhran resolved the mystery of a blind murder and robbery of over Rs110m and arrested four suspects in the case.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Lodhran District Police Officer Kamran Mumtaz said on the night of Dec 31, 2024, trailer driver Shakeel’s body was found on the Multan Road while his trailer was missing.

After the incident, the DPO formed three police investigation teams and they traced four suspects including Shakeel’s cousin driver Hashim and his three accomplices Rashid, Shaukat and Usman. He said Hashim and Shakeel were drivers of a truck company and the former hatched a plan to loot Shakeel with the help of his three friends. On the night of occurrence, all four suspects robbed Shakeel’s trailer laden with 1,200 batteries and a trailer worth Rs110m, which was recovered from the suspects.

IUB VC: Prof Dr Muhammad Naeem Khan, who was not appointed as the vice chancellor of the Islamia University, Bahawalpur (IUB), has invoked the right to information law and sought information from the chief information commissioner.

Professor Emeritus Dr Muhammad Naeem Khan filed a petition with the Punjab Information Commission under Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013, seeking information and documents related to search process for the IUB VC in 2024.

In his complaint (a copy available with Dawn), Dr Naeem sought the interference of chief information commissioner Punjab and demanded vital information, secret documents, including criteria for selection of the VC, list of the eligible candidates, those shortlisted for interviews, after scrutiny of applications, award sheet showing the academic/professional marks allocated to the petitioner, award sheet showing the interview marks awarded to the petitioner and other detail.

It may be noted that the writ petition of Prof Dr Naeem Khan in the matter of the post of the VC was already fixed in the LHC for hearing on Feb26. Besides, Punjab Higher Education Department (HED), on his applications, has shortlisted Prof Naeem for his interview for the post of the VC in three universities, i.e. Govt College University (GCU), Islamia University, Bahawalpur (IUB) and University of Narowal on Feb 10.

PROTEST: The employees of the Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB) held a demonstration at the main gate of old Abbasia Campus to press for the acceptance of their demand regarding payment of their salaries for the months of December 2024 and January 2025.

The employees protested for hours. They told Dawn that they were unpaid for the month of January 2025 while one-fourth salaries for December 2024 were also yet to be paid by the university.

Meanwhile, the IUB Department of Artificial Intelligence (AI) organised a final year project that showcased the extraordinary work and innovations of students.

According to an IUB press release, more than 50 projects were presented in the event, each of which gave creative solutions to real world problems through the application of artificial intelligence (AI).

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2025