THE Punjab government’s initiative of laptops distribution among universities and colleges’ top merit students is being well-taken as an overwhelming number of students have been involved in the process for the last few months.
Those, who have received laptops, are jubilant, while those left out are expecting to get the systems in the next phase. While another class of students who initially qualified to reflect on the list of selected candidates on Punjab government’s website and later denied the laptops are highly agitated – and agitating.
Apart from several students, many PML-N opponents and neutral citizens protest that why the PML-N is using public resources to advance its political agenda. In Lahore, the first laptop distribution ceremony at Punjab University has consumed millions of rupees -- either to be paid by the Punjab University or the Punjab government.
The only speech by PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif was nothing but to woo the youth, who are most likely to play a vital role in next elections – by polling their votes.
Sharif castigated his major opponents -- PPP led by Asif Ali Zardari and PTI led by Imran Khan -- and said the PML-N was the only party that would fetch the nation out of crisis. He even kept on asking students to check PML-N previous tenures’ achievements and success stories on the laptops given to them.
While he criticized the PPP for corruption and economic backwardness of Pakistanis, Sharif conveniently ignored the money used to hold the laptops distribution ceremony which eventually allowed him to address a crowed of over 20,000 students and their parents as part of his ongoing forthcoming election campaign.
He also wooed the youth by committing that the Punjab government would procure some 300,000 laptops in the next budget and if the youth would support it for a “historic win” in next elections, it would procure one million laptops for top merit students across the country.
Although the Lahore High Court has restrained the Punjab University to spend even a single penny on the ceremony -- a “political jalsa” in nature, the people ask if it is fair that the money spent by the Punjab government on the purchase of laptops be used by the political party in power in Punjab. Presence of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at the function might have justified the spending by the Punjab government, they opined.
On the other hand, one cannot criticise the PU vice-chancellor for allocating the money in the context that he is a subordinate and ordered to do so as is the case in all other universities and other public departments, including education boards, which were funding to hold functions, lunches and dinners and then keep on adjusting expenditures.
Even various campaigns are funded by public sector departments. However, the dark side of this situation is that all those at the helm of affairs of public sector departments feel privileged in facilitating their political bosses.
At Punjab University, the LHC order had led to the “blocking” of T-Shirts and Caps (for which Rs6.5 million were allocated), badges and leaflets (having an allocation of Rs400,000 and Rs175,000, respectively). Either these promotional materials were never procured or dumped.
However, the money for tentage (allocation of Rs15 million), banners and streamers (allocation of Rs5 million), sound system (allocation of Rs2 million) and music master (Rs60,000) was spent. It is hoped that whatever the money spent by the PU will be refunded.
The second function of laptops distribution at King Edward Medical University was again met the same fate as the ceremony was chaired by PML-N MNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, who however, intentionally restrained himself from speaking politics – perhaps due to criticism already in the air. The KEMU had allocated some Rs7 million for the ceremony. As many as 12 more laptops distribution ceremonies have been scheduled in universities, medical colleges, autonomous and public colleges in the city that conclude at University of Engineering and Technology on April 7. In all, some 43,329 laptops will be distributed among students in Lahore.
Still on the brighter side of the picture, hundreds of students are protesting and demanding that they should also be given laptops. An overwhelming number of such students belong to afternoon and evening classes in universities, particularly Punjab University, who had gone through a long and tedious process of registration as the government continued revising criteria
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PINK Ribbon Campaign has launched the youth awareness drive in colleges and universities to create widespread awareness about breast cancer in young girls and its high incidence, severity leading to fatality, impact on the life of the sufferer and the family and also spreading the good news that if detected early, the cancer can be cured.
The drive launched in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission cancer hospitals, reached out to 60,000 girls through 19 universities and colleges through mass distribution of information material, public awareness seminars and free clinical examination camps.
At the launch of this campaign at Government College University, Lahore, on last Wednesday, the experts and researchers said “Sound the Alarm” because breast cancer was reported to be rapidly increasing in young girls in Pakistan and one of every nine women in the country was at the risk of this disease.
Pink Ribbon Pakistan national coordinator Aftab Omer told the audience at varsity’s Bukhari auditorium that Pakistan had biggest ratio of breast cancer in Asia and the situation was becoming more critical as more and more young girls were falling victim to this disease.
“There are 40,000 reported deaths of women in Pakistan every year due to breast cancer. However, most of the cancer deaths remain unreported due to a lack of heath facilities,” he observed.
Omer also lamented that Pakistan was allocating only 0.57 per cent of its GDP for health. “Even out of this meagre budget, 50 per cent remains unspent due to negligence and a lack of commitment,” he added.
He dispelled the impression that only females were the victim of breast cancer. “There is one per cent chance of developing this disease in men and hundreds of such cases have been reported across the world,” he said.
With the launching at the GCU, the Pink Ribbon set up its awareness camps in 19 colleges and universities and created awareness among 60,000 girl students, simultaneously.
The Pink Ribbon has marked 2012 as Youth Year with a target to reach out to 500,000 girls. The programme started from Islamabad in January with outreach to 25,000 youths through 13 educational institutions.
In the next phase, the Pink Ribbon Campaign will go to Peshawar in the first week of next month, while awareness activity will begin in May.
The effective launching of the campaign has earned the support of some 6,000 young volunteers and which is increasing day by day. — mansoormalik173@hotmail.com
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