Governor Punjab says India seeking to divert global attention from protest over CAA, NRC

Governor Punjab Ch Mohammad Sarwar on Tuesday said "War is not the solution of problems; if India imposes war on us we will give India befitting response. Indian army firing on innocents along LoC is aimed to divert world's attention from India's internal massive protests over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) against newly legislated Citizen Amendment Act."

Governor of Punjab Ch Mohammad Sarwar was addressing the 22nd convocation of University of Central Punjab and later was talking to media in Expo Centre Lahore. Pro Rector UCP Dr Mansoor Ahmed and renowned Lawyer Salman Akram Raja were also present on this occasion.

While addressing Governor Punjab Ch Mohammad Sarwar said Pakistan wanted to maintain close ties with neighbourly countries and regional peace and stability was first priority of Pakistan but unfortunately India didn't want regional stability and was continuously showing aggression and threatens peace in the region.

Governor said girls were outshining boys in education and securing all the medals for academic excellence. 1,600 young graduates received their degrees. Fatima Tuz Zahra, received Roll of Honour and Yumna Fatima was the winner of Entrepreneurship Award, introduced this year to encourage entrepreneurship among students. Moeed Ahmad was given Certificate of Merit. 98 position holders were awarded with gold, silver and bronze medals.

Pro Rector UCP Dr Mansoor Ahmed said that links between academia and industry was considered as a vital organ to foster research and product development and UCP had completed a number of industrial projects. Besides other several R&D activities, the University has published 271 Impact Factor Research Papers having a total impact of 546 in the last two years which signifies that the University is paying its due share in creation and enhancement of knowledge.

He also said UCP Centre of Robotics had successfully completed a number of industrial projects in collaboration with Germany, which provided economical and viable solutions by engaging indigenous resources to agro industry. The Centre has attracted international funding of worth 240K Euros from Germany and is actively involved in developing agricultural robots for the farmers in Pakistan. The University has established an English Language Centre, ELC, which aims to enhance students' language and critical thinking skills. ECL also organizes workshops, seminars, and discussion forums that offer sustainable learning environment to teachers, envisioned in the betterment of the students at UCP.

UCP incubation Centre known as Takhleeq, established last year with the vision to help UCP students, faculty and alumni to turn their business ideas into successful startup companies, has created a significant impact and graduated two cohorts. Currently, the third cohort is being mentored by Takhleeq professionals with the aim to inculcate the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation in young and passionate individuals to develop their own business ideas and to translate them into realities.

Pro Rector said UCP in the last financial year distributed around 472 million in Scholarships to its 11,484 students in fall 2018 and spring 2019; while, working on the mission that education should not be denied to any meritorious candidates because of societal or economic constraints.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019