LAHORE, March 26: The commission constituted by the Punjab government to review the constitution of boards of governors in educational institutions will complete its work by April 10.

This was stated by commission head Justice Ijaz Nisar (retired) while talking to Dawn on Wednesday. He said the commission had so far recorded statements of more than 50 stakeholders across the province, and would complete its work after hearing stakeholders from the government college in Sargodha and Faisalabad universities. He added that the commission members would visit these universities next week and listen to the teaching staff as well.

The former justice said the Joint Action Committee representatives had been invited this week to record their statements, but they didn’t appear before the commission. The commission would recall them next week, he added.

Mr Ijaz said the commission would submit its report to the chief minister by the end of the next month.

A commission member told this reporter that besides recording the statements of stakeholders, the commission had received over 160 written suggestions from the relevant people so far.

Sources said a majority of the stakeholders objected to the decision of granting university status to the government colleges in Sargodha and Faisalabad, and demanded abolition of BoGs from educational institutions.

They said the decision was taken in a haste, as the varsities had no research centres, modern libraries, laboratories, qualified teaching staff and other resources.

The stakeholders were of the view that these universities would produce poor graduates, who would be not as competitive as the graduates of the country’s other universities. They urged the government to establish new universities instead of granting university status to any college in the province.

The commission members are Government College Lahore’s former Principal Abdul Majeed Awan, Civil Services Academy management adviser Dr Sarfraz Khwaja, adviser to Islamic Education and Cultural Development Dr Khairat Ibn-i-Rasa, Lahore University Vice-Chancellor M H Qazi, Lahore University of Management Sciences Vice-Chancellor Dr Zahoorul Hassan, Institute of Education and Research Director Dr Munawar S Mirza, Journalist Mak Lodhi and the social welfare secretary.