LAHORE: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on Thursday appointed Prof Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid, a former vice chancellor of the University of Engineering and Technology, as chairperson of the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC).

A five-member search committee led by Dr Attaur Rahman had interviewed 15 shortlisted candidates for the post of chairperson of the commission. The committee had conducted interviews and sent the top three candidates’ names to the CM’s office two weeks ago. The candidates were COMSATS Islamabad Faculty of Science Dean Prof Dr Arshad Saleem Bhatti, University of Agriculture Faisalabad VC Prof Dr Muhammad Ashraf and former Lahore UET VC Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid.

The post of the chairperson of the commission had been vacant for the last six months after Prof Dr Nizamuddin’s tenure ended on Dec 16, 2018.

According to a notification of the Punjab Higher Education Department (HED), “The Chief Minister/ Controlling Authority has been pleased to approve the appointment of Prof Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid as a Chairperson, Punjab Higher Education Commission, Lahore for a period of four years, in exercise of power vested in him under Section 5(1) and 5(2) of the Punjab Higher Education Commission Act, 2014.”

Prof Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid has an extensive experience of industry, teaching and research. He worked as UET vice chancellor from 2014 to 2018. He also worked as acting VC of the Punjab Tianjin University of Technology (PTUT) in 2018 and had an additional charge of Khawaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology (KFUEIT), Rahim Yar Khan, and Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering & Technology (MNS UET) Multan in 2015-2016.

He served the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI) for 21 years as Pro-Rector and Dean from 1994-2014.

His research interests are in the field of Nanotechnology and Materials Engineering and has published over 200 research papers with accumulative impact factor of 121. He had post doc Fellowships in University of Oxford and Leeds, the UK and Guest Professorship for short-term research program on Diamond-Based Composite Materials at the Swiss Federal Labs (EMPA) Switzerland.

UVAS: A delegation of the US on Thursday visited the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS), Lahore, to discuss various aspects of food safety problems/issues, solutions and standards to ensure safe food availability to the consumers.

The meeting was co chaired by Pro Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Masood Rabbani, Agricultural Counselor, US Embassy Islamabad Casey E Bean and attended by US Livestock Genetics Export President/CEO Dr Martin Sieber, Senior Agricultural Specialist, US Embassy Mr Asmat Raza, Prof Emeritus Dr Nasim Ahmad, and UVAS food safety experts.

They discussed various aspects of food safety problems, their possible solutions, food safety standards and how to ensure safe food availability to the consumers. Food safety management under the umbrella of one health approach related to the livestock sector was also discussed in the meeting.

The UVAS food safety experts said the food safety systems could be adopted for improving and ensuring that livestock food products are safe and healthy for eating. They said testing facilities for meat were available and the latest processing and packaging technologies were used for feed analysis including vacuum and modified atmospherics packing to keep meat fresh and tasteful for a longer time.

The US delegation also visited the Department of Meat Science and Technology and saw slaughtering facilities, electric stimulation, and meat preserving, chilling and packaging systems.

Casey Bean appreciated the facilities available at the Department of Meat Science and Technology and said they could sell and even export the meat products easily if good food safety system was in place.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2019