MULTAN, Jan 2: Delay in declaration of results of various courses by the Institute of Management Sciences of the Bahauddin Zakariya University has created an embarrassing situation for hundreds of students.

The institute had announced that it would declare the results of some 26 classes of the various courses being conducted at the IMS by Dec 29, 2003, as the next semester in all the courses was scheduled to start from Jan 1.

The institute offers courses of MBA (morning and evening), MBA (IT), MBA (executive), BBA, BBA (IT), sociology and psychology. The students were told that their respective results would be put on the official website of the university. However, no result was given on the site until Dec 31.

The IMS could declare the results of only 13 classes by Dec 30 (Tuesday) while the students of rest of the classes remained confused on Jan 1 as to whether or not they should join the new semester.

A group of students told Dawn that all was not well at the institute for quite some time, as its director had remained too busy to take care of the matters at the IMS.

Besides the office of the director, he also held the portfolio of chairman of the MBA department and is reportedly the project director of the proposed Multan College of Arts, they added.

The affected students further pointed out that most of the teachers at the IMS were visiting faculty members, who hardly did justice to their job. When this correspondent tried to contact IMS Director Dr Zafarullah Khan, he was not available because of his stated engagements in Lahore.

Gangs busted: Local police claimed to have busted five gangs of robbers who had become 'symbol of terror'. DPO Hamid Mukhtar Gondal told Dawn that the police had arrested 12 members of these gangs. They were known as Billa gang, Rustam Mangan gang, Ahmad Khan gang, Nikka Baloch gang and Rakha gang.

He said the police had recovered illegal arms and stolen goods worth hundreds of thousands of rupees, including vehicles, jewellery and electronic gadgets from their possession.

He identified the arrested men as Imran Mahmood alias Billa, Ishfaq, Ajmal, Ahmad Khan, Saeed Iqbal, Fayyaz Ahmad, Ghulam Mustafa alias Nikka Baloch, Piran Ditta, Hasrat Khan, Allah Rakha, Tariq, Haq Nawaz and Waris Manzoor.