MULTAN,Feb 27th:Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) has initiated a Digital library in Multan and Shamim Ahmed Khan (ex-President) and his son Nouman Ahmed Khan (ex-SVP) provided funds of Rs.5 million for the Laangay Khan Library in the heart of the Multan city.
Dr.Ahmed Jan Khan Vice Chancellor on LUMS University inaugurated the Digital Information centre in the library and told ,"we have provided journals from1880 to update to this library and all book so that People of Multan could complete informations and knowledge at their door step.Addressing the inaugural ceremony Dr.Bruce Lawrence professor of Islamic learning from Duke University said Libraries are established for the systematic collection, organization, preservation and dissemination of knowledge and information. It is very important for man to preserve and maintain the valuable knowledge and information contained in the books and documents because we want to preserve our knowledge and wisdom for the coming generations. By preserving the documents in a library this knowledge can be made available to others so that they can benefit from it. Establishment of libraries is not a new concept. The oldest library dates to around 2700 years ago in Sennacherib's Palace in Nineveh which shows how long ago the concept of leaving a piece of your wisdom behind started being formed into the organized collection to preserve the work.He said that User demand is ever increasing and putting a great pressure on the librarians. Therefore, there is an imperative need for the modernization of libraries in order to keep pace with the modern times. The new challenges in the field of Library and Information Science can be met by adopting the process of digitization and networking. In the present age the Librarians have to face many problems due to the limitations of time and space. User satisfaction is the main objective of a good library. It cannot be achieved without adopting the modern tools and techniques rendered available by the modern technologies available in the field of Information and telecommunication. These developments have led to the creation of Digital and Virtual Libraries, which have great advantages over the traditional libraries. Therefore, digital libraries are becoming popular due to the advantages and facilities, which are offered by them to their users.Man's quest for knowledge has led to the creation and accumulation of tremendous amount of information. This quest for knowledge knows no bounds and limits and is never satisfied. It has continued since the dawn of civilization to the modern age. This hard-earned knowledge and information is valuable for the entire mankind and therefore liable to be preserved. With the invention of paper man has been able to convey this knowledge to others by writing books. Thousands of manuscripts have been written by the wise men of the earlier times but many of them were destroyed due to the lack of proper means of preservation.Prof. Dr.Ahmed Jan Durrani said that he was a son of this soil and he had tried his utmost to return to my homeland. He greeted Shamim Khan and Nauman Khan for their contribution in modernisation of this library.He also praised the role of Dr.AShiq Muhammad Khan Durrani former Vice Chancellor of Bahauddin Zakariya University, Faisal Balouch and Junaid Shafqat and Dr.Muhammad Ramzan Chief Librarian of LUMS for establishing the Digital centre.Dr.AShiq Durrani said that Staff of this library was passing through severe economic stress because they are drawing only Rs.6000/- PM since long.While Government had increased the salaries/ wages of even unskilled workers to Rs.7000. but we are unable to meet our expenditures.He urged upon the philanthropists to contribute for this library as maximum as possible.
MULTAN, Feb 18th:Over 8,000 teachers working in 400 educational institutions being run by the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) went on indefinite strike entered the seconday on Friday which began from Thursday
with a pledge not to resume academic activities until the issuance of notification regarding implementation of teachers’ package announced by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in November 2010.The teaching staff of Multan, Bahawalpur and Okara also observed the strike
The academic activities on Friday were completely halted, as the teachers after marking the attendance kicked off their strike against the non-implementation of incentives package of teachers. Students were the worst victims of this protest as they remained on their respective campuses busy gossiping.
Teaching faculty of all major schools and colleges under FDE in various sectors of federal capital boycotted the classes and no academic activity took place in these institutions. On February 15 over 2,500 teachers under the banner of Federal Government Teachers’ Association (FGTA) participated in a protest demonstration at Federal Government Model School for Boys, G-9/4. After failure of talks between FGTA and the high-ups of the Ministry of Education FGTA Azhar Mehmood Awan announced to go on strike from Thursday for indefinite period till the issuance of notification of ‘Teachers’ Package’. Sources told that FGTA held many meetings with Ministry of Education high-ups for immediate implementation of the package, however all their efforts bore no fruits.The then education minister Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali formed a three-member implementation committee on uniformity of education system in the ICT and upgradation of teachers. The committee included Additional Secretary Education Shaigan Sharif Malik, FDE Chairperson Dr Shaheen Khan and Aurangzeb Rehman. The FGTA representatives in a meeting on February 2 had decided to start their strike on February 7, however the FDE chairperson requested them to give some time for the implementation of package.FGTA president told that Dr Shaheen had asked them to wait till February 15 and committed that the teachers’ package would be announced in a meeting on 15th of this month. “But so far nothing positive happened and now we staged a protest and all the teachers are ready to boycott the classes from Wednesday,” Awan said.“The FGTA, being an elected representative body of about 7,000 teachers working in 388 educational institutions under the FDE, Islamabad, and also being the largest stakeholders of the education department is always keen to expedite the implementation process of upgradation of teachers and uniformity of education system in the ICT, the president FGTA said.Awan said that the FGTA had already given its five-point recommendations for upgradation of teachers and 12-point recommendations for the uniformity of education. “Teachers of all cadres (BPS-9 to BPS-16) working under FDE, Islamabad, have been deprived of their promotion for last 25 years due to discrimination and disparity in promotion formula,” he said.
He said FGTA had also demanded immediate suspension of “four-tier structure for federal government teachers 2000” that protects recruitment and promotion rights of only 791 administrators, re-scheduling and re-designation of “four-tier structure for federal government teachers 2000” into proposed “five-tier structure for federal government teachers 2010” which will protect the recruitment and promotion rights of all about 7,000 teachers and administrators of all proposed five cadres (BPS-16 to BPS-20) equally and uniformly without any kind of disparity and discrimination,” he said.FGTA president also confirmed that teachers observed a complete strike on Thursday. “Teachers marked their attendance and boycotted the classes. In some schools the faculty members protested and raised slogans against hig-ups of education ministry and FDE,” he said, adding, he knows protest and boycotting classes would harm the future of children but it is also a concern of our own kids who are suffering due to non-implementation of this package as we have meager salary.
MULTAN, March 18th:At least 110 computers have so far been stolen from the 70 schools of Southern Punjab due to non-provision of information Technology staff and security guards.Similarly buses provided to Government College for women Multan and other colleges by the Federal as well as Provincial Governments are grounded due to non-availability of drivers. Government did not sanctioned the posts of drivers nor funds for the feul.Sources said that Hard-disks, Ram, and mother boards of high quality were also stolen from the IT laboratories with the criminal connivance of the staff. Though Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif had claimed that more than two million students in Punjab would receive computer education with the help of NComputing's ultra low-cost virtual desktops but his dream could not come true due to non-cooperation of bureaucracy and teaching staff. These laboratories are lying closed since their inauguration and not a single student could get IT education from these laboratories. These computer laboratories were set up in more than 4,000 government- secondary and higher secondary schools.Each school was furnished with a 15-seat computer lab, which is to run on three desktop PCs and 12 NComputing virtual desktops that will be connected to the PCs. In addition to reducing purchase costs, electricity usage for these labs will be 90 per cent lower than a traditional all-PC computer lab. Additional Programme Director Joudat Ayaz of the IT Labs project said that it was a sustainable and environment-friendly project with very low recurring costs. "In the overall context of the project, we are saving over Rs 1.8 billion, which is almost 36 per cent of the total project cost."As far as the electricity savings are concerned, the Punjab government would save another over Rs 10 million per month as the NComputing devices use only one watt of electricity as compared to 110 watts or more for a typical PC, he added.
MULTAN,Feb 19th: Board of Intermediate & secondary Education(BISE) Employees on friday observed token hunger strike as the negotiations between the representatives of Employees welfare Associations of Education boards and Punjab Minister for Education Shuja-ur-rehman failed They said that the minister made only verbal assurance and he was reluctant to issue written orders.Now examinations of SSC and intermediate may be delayed due to the continuous strike of board employees.Ch. Muhammad Ashraf Shad president of Welfare association and General Secretary Zafar Iqbal Khosa vowed to continue their protest till the achievement of their objective.They said that all educational boards are running in losses due to remission of exam-fee for regular students and Government should compensate all the boards so that these could run their business.They said that the board is about to go bankrupt.
MULTAN, Feb 9th: Employees of Multan Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISE) observed pen down strike at the call of Federation of Punjab Boards of education and staged a demonstration to press the authorities for acceptance of their demands.The demo was led by Ch.Zahid Mehmood president and Malik Nisar Ahmed General SEcretary of the association.They said that Punjab Government had exempted the students of Government schools of examination fee but it did not compensate the education boards nor increased the medical allowance of the employees.They said that BISE would incur huge financial loss due to remission of examination fee on the regular students.
MULTAN, Feb 5th: A Class-two girl-student, Nazia (6) was tortured by her female teacher Iqbal Ara in Chowk Azam who later succumbed to torture in hospital.Police have registered a case however post mortem report will reveal the cause of death.According to details, Nazia D/O Muhammad Arif Gondal went to primary School of Chak No.154/TDA on Thursday where a teacher Iqbal Ara allegedly beat her for not learning the lesson.Resultantly her condition deteriorated and she was admitted to hospital where she died early in the morning. The parents alleged that Nazia was tortured to death by the teacher. However School Teacher Iqbal Ara categorically denied the allegation and stated that she did not even touch the girl because she was ill. Executive District Officer (Education) Abdul Shakoor also stated that he had investigated the case. The girl student was ill and she died of blood-vomitting next day in hospital. DPO Layyah Ch.Muhammad Saleem and DCO Javed Iqbal also visited the site and said," we have registered a case against the teacher on murder charge but no arrest was made because we are waitring for post mortem report.
