LAHORE, April 17: The Punjab University will allocate one seat in its all departments for students from Balochistan and bear all their expenses.

This was announced by PU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran at a seminar on ‘Balochistan – Problems and Solutions’ organised by varsity in collaboration with its Academic Staff Association on Tuesday.

He was all praise for the Baloch youth studying at PU’s College of Art and Design. “They have the best creative skills. We should collectively work for removing misconceptions and endeavour to solve problems of Balochistan,” he said and urged all the segments of life to be united for allocation of four percent of GDP towards education.

Senator Mir Hasil Bazenjo said for the last 60 years or so, the people of Punjab were being wrongly propagated about the Baloch that they were traitors and the same propaganda was in Balochistan against Punjabis that they were consuming major chunk of the resources of the country.

“The establishment has been causing harm to Pakistan but unfortunately the responsibility has wrongly been shifted towards Punjabis through propaganda. None of the five movements launched for the rights of Baloch people were for the freedom of Balochistan. Punjab is the province that faced maximum discriminations in the last 60 years.

“After the assassination of Nawab Akber Bugti, some young Balochis started killing Punjabis which we condemn. A large number of Punjabis has been residing in Quetta,” said the senator while stressing the need for cultural unity among provinces for the development of Pakistan.

Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association President Kaleem Baloch said that the problems of Balochistan were not created by the people of the province. The local leadership was not taken into confidence while taking major decisions regarding Balochistan.

Political analyst Prof Dr Mujahid Ali Mansoori said people belonging to middle class did not consider Balochis as traitors. Ghaus Bakhsh Bazenjo was a great politician who always practiced politics as ritual and the new generation should be aware of his lifestyle and honesty.

He said the first public representative government in Balochistan was formed in 1973 but unfortunately it was dismissed by a civilian government after nine months. Balochistan was the first province which declared Urdu as official language.

Former senator Abdul Hayee Baloch said Balochis would not comprise over their sovereignty and would prefer sacrificing their lives rather than becoming a slave. He said now Balochi women had taken to streets and established camps outside Islamabad and Karachi Press Clubs to raise voice for the missing persons.

Military Training Centre former director-general Javed Iqbal said the civil government of Balochistan should use Rs14 billion allocated for `Aghaz-i-Haqooq-i-Balochistan’ and if the government did not consume it, then the people should ask their Balochi rulers about it.

He said Balochis should join Balochistan police and Levies to improve law and order situation there.

LUMS: The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) will be launching ‘Technology for the People Initiative (TPI)’ on its campus with the collaboration of Google on Wednesday (today).

Representative of Google public policy and government affairs team William Fitzgerald would also be present on the occasion, said a LUMS spokesperson on Tuesday.