Punjab releases funds to buy land for Gujar Khan PU campus

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, a former prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party leader, said the Punjab government has released funds to acquire land for a Punjab University campus in Gujar Khan, a step he said would allow construction to begin and bring the area its first College of Pharmacy.

Ashraf spoke at the PPP Punjab Secretariat in Lahore during a meeting with Dr Amjad Magsi, president of the Punjab University Academic Staff Association, according to Business Recorder.

He said the campus would give local boys and girls access to advanced and technical education close to home and would house the region's first pharmacy college.

Ashraf said he had proposed an education city on 100 acres along the G.T. Road in 1993, and that the plan was now being realised. The campus already offers LLB, BBA, BS Information, BS Information Technology and Commerce programmes, he said. Once the project is complete, students from the Potohar region would no longer have to travel to Lahore or Islamabad for higher education.

He thanked Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif for her interest in the project and named Governor Sardar Saleem Haider, Punjab University Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Ali, Dr Amjad Magsi and Mian Faisal among those who had supported it.

Ashraf said the prime minister and Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal had backed the Gujar Khan University project with an allocation of Rs 6.5 billion. He thanked the Punjab chief secretary, the provincial cabinet and the relevant provincial departments for their cooperation.

On university finances, Ashraf asked the federal government to increase annual grants, saying the rupee's depreciation had cut the real value of the money institutions receive to less than half and made it harder for them to meet their costs.

Pothwar News reported that preparations were under way for the Punjab University Potohar campus and the College of Pharmacy. Its report did not mention the land-acquisition funds, the Rs 6.5 billion allocation or the meeting at the PPP secretariat.

The Gujar Khan campus is one of several Punjab University sites outside Lahore. Business Recorder reported no comment from the Punjab government on the release of the funds, and did not give the amount released or a date for construction to start.