TOBA TEK SINGH: At the 26th convocation of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) held on Tuesday, 17,578 graduates of 2019-20 session were awarded degrees.

The convocation held in the varsity’s D-Ground was presided over by Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, while D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation Secretary General Isiaka Abdulqadir Imam, Pakistan Academy of Sciences President Dr Khalid Mehmood, Government College For Women University Faisalabad VC Dr Robina Farooq, Cholistan Veterinary University VC Prof Dr Muhammad Sajjad Khan and University of Haripur former VC Dr Anwaar Gilani also attended the function.

At the convocation, PhD degrees were awarded to 226 students, gold medals to 38 students, silver medals to 118 students and 28 students got bronze medals.

As many as 12,299 students got post-graduate degrees, while 5,053 obtained undergraduate degrees.

Dr Iqrar, in his speech on the occasion, expressed the hope that the degree-holders would play a pivotal role in the socio-economic development of the country. He said the UAF was taking all possible measures to produce the skilled human resource and equip them with modern tools to excel in their respective fields.

He said during the last year’s nine-day wheat enhancement campaign, the UAF had sent 30,000 students to farmers’ fields across the province as part of a community service programme.

He said around 50 percent of the UAF students were girls as the university believed in the women empowerment. He thanked the Punjab government for establishing a new state-of-the-art hostel for 1,000 girl students and funding five facilitation centres for women at the UAF.

He said the varsity was working on different tangible research projects and new climate resistant varieties of wheat, soybean, cotton and other crops were about to mature.

UAF Controller Examination Inam Qadir Khan also spoke.

SAPLINGS: A record 25,000 saplings were planted in “one minute” during a tree planting drive at the second-largest forest of Punjab located in Kamalia alongside the river Ravi on Tuesday.

Faisalabad Commissioner Ms Silwat Saeed supervised the tree planting campaign, while Deputy Commissioner Adnan Irshad and Kamalia Assistant Commissioner Ms Anam Fatima were also present on the occasion.

Hundreds of students of government and private schools and employees of different district government departments took part in the campaign.

According to forest department officials, such a large number of saplings were planted simultaneously in one minute for the first time in the history of Toba Tek Singh.

BOMB HOAX: Panic gripped the residents of the area surrounding Chak Jhumra Railway Station following a hoax phone call made to local police that a “bomb” had been planted in the area.

Following the phone call, a heavy contingent of police led by Chak Jhumra circle deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and station house officer (SHO) reached the spot and conducted a search operation in the area, but no “bomb” was found.

The police said that the mobile phone number used for making the hoax call was registered in the name of a woman and was found switched off later.

A police spokesperson said legal action would be taken after tracing the unidentified caller.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2023