Scholarships: Scholarships for talented and needy students have been increased from Rs.2.336 million in 1999-2000 to Rs.5.518 million for 910 students in 2000-2001, Rs.8.038 million for 1110 students in 2001-2002, Rs.14.436 million for 2015 students in 2002-2003, Rs. 21.636 million for 3015 students in 2003-2004, Rs.33.852 million for 4030 students in 2004-2005 and Rs.45.270 million for 5030 students in 2005-2006.  The amount of scholarship has also been increased from Rs. 9000/-  annually.  The scholarship allocation has further been increased to Rs.60 million for 6000 for the financial year 2006-2007.  An amount of Rs.60.360 has been allocated for 5030 students and scholarship amount  has been increased to Rs.  12,000/-.

Affiliation System: 482 affiliated colleges are affiliated with Punjab University in which 258 are Govt. Colleges. Some of the private colleges are imparting quality education, while others are operating merely as business concerns by charging exorbitant fees and providing low quality education. Punjab University has recently started re-visits to affiliated colleges and 47 institutions with poor performance have been de-affiliated. Illegally registered institutions have been issued legal notices.

PU News and PU Magazine: To train the students in communication skills and freedom of expression, ‘PU News' is being published fortnightly. A magazine of the PU ‘ Mehwar' has been published after a gap of nine years. Through the PU Youth Development Programs students are motivated to participate in co-curricular activities for development of a balanced personality. Students are encouraged to write suitable articles in various newspapers about the academic developments/activities in the University.

Academic Calendar: In 1999 some of the departments were exams late by 2/3 years.  Academic Calendar was issued during year 2000, for the first time in its history. Academic Calendar 2001, 2002 and 2003 were published and the schedule of exams and meetings of various academic bodies and other events were held as scheduled.  The Academic Calendar 2004, 2005 & 2006 were also issued for use by the students to plan their studies.  The Academic Calendar 2007 has also been published.  This has ensured holding of exams. and announcement of results on time.

Co-Curricular Activities:

Punjab University Academic and Co-Curricular Council comprising of eighteen senior faculty members was constituted in November, 1999. The Council has sixteen sub-committees/societies/clubs to conduct various Academic and Co-Curricular Activities of the students. Ten seats have been reserved in M.A./M.Sc. admissions for merit on co-curricular activities in various departments of the Punjab University. The students of Punjab University have participated in various Co-Curricular Activities and won many distinctions and prizes in various categories of co-curricular activities mentioned as under:-

•  SAARC Seven Countries Inter-Universities Genius of South Asia Contest: Punjab University has a unique honour to win SAARC seven Countries Inter Universities Genius of South Asia Contest for three consecutive years.

•  National Students Convention 2004 On the instructions of the President, HEC organized Student Convention in Islamabad. Out 118 delegates, 40 attended from Punjab and 10 from PU. Out of 8 speakers 3 were from Punjab and out of 3 one was from PU, who won an award of Rs. 25,000/-.

•  Pakistan Students Convention 2005

HEC organized Pakistan Students Convention 7-9 April 2005 in Convention Center Islamabad. Out of 107 speakers, 27 were from Province of Punjab and out of these 27 speakers 5 from Punjab University. Punjab University was the lead University regarding the participation.

•  Madr-E-Millat Awards - 2004

Punjab University won all the 9 Madr-e-Millat Awards organized by the Provincial Government i.e. Best Vice-Chancellor in Punjab, Award for International Achievements, Debates, Qirat, Naat, Iqbaliat, Ist Position Holder B.A Exam 2003, Ist Position Holder B.Sc. Exam 2003 and Sports. Ch. Pervaiz Elahi, Chief Minister Punjab gave away these awards at Al-Hamra Hall, Lahore on 14 January 2004.

e. ACHIEVEMENTS IN ALL PAKISTAN CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES:-

ON CAMPUS CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Sports Achievements:

In 1 st Pakistan Universities Games – 2004, under the arrangements of Higher Education Commission(HEC), Punjab University secured first position with 26 Gold Medals and Karachi University was declared second with 6 Gold Medals.

This year HEC 2 nd Pakistan Universities Games 2005 were held from 11 to 18 April 2005. Once again Punjab University was declared first out of 37 Universities. PU has a distinction of breaking 4 Inter-University records this year.

Final medal tally and points are as under:

In 2006, we have won 55 Gold Medals.

We, in PU, formed Special Selection Committees for various sports for selection on merit through extensive trials spread over one month. We also constituted a Monitoring Team to oversee the field trials and conduct of the Selection Committees.

The selected teams were given proper coaching and training to develop their stamina and coordination before launching them into the competition.  This process developed much needed confidence and motivation as an individual as also well-knit teams.

Sports Complex : To encourage sports, construction of a Sports Complex has been planned in a phased program. A number of sports grounds next to the hostels have been added recently. A sports hostel for girls has been constructed. A Physical Fitness Centre was also established in 2002.   A vast area of Play-fields has been allocated and boundary wall constructed all around it at the Old Campus Grounds of the University for use by the female players. 

Sports Facilities : Sports facilities for Tennis, Badminton, Volleyball and Basketball have been provided in teachers’ colony.  A Jogging track has also been developed in the University.  New sports grounds have been developed in front of hostels by utilizing the available resources.  A children park and lawns surrounding the guest house have been developed.

Annual Convocation: PU Convocation were being regularly held upto 1968. Thereafter, only three convocations were held in 30 years from 1968 to 1998. The Annual Convocations are now being held regularly. Convocation 2000 was held in April 2000 President of Pakistan Gen Pervez Musharraf was the chief guest and the Convocations 2001 and 2002 were held in December 2001 and December 2002, respectively and the Governor Punjab/Chancellor Lt Gen Khalid Maqbool (Retd.) was the chief guest. 113th Convocation held in March 2003 was presided over by the Chief Minister Punjab Ch. Pervaiz Elahi. 114th Convocation held in March 2004, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mir Zafar Ullah Khan Jamali was the chief guest. 115th Convocation was held in March 2006 and President of Pakistan Gen.Pervez Musharraf was the Chief Guest. Regular holding of convocation has provided encouragement and incentive to the students to work hard for receiving their degrees / awards / medals.

PU Schools: The PU has a Primary School and a Laboratory School upto class 10 under the Institute of Education and Research (IER). Refresher courses for teachers have been organized by experts to improve the standard of teachers of both the Schools. The schools have been provided computers.

The standard of the schools has improved considerably. The Laboratory School is used for the under-training teachers in the IER. The Primary School has been provided new classrooms and Principal office.

Academic Bodies Meetings:

Punjab University Press The Punjab University Press one of the old and largest Press was established in 1948 in the Allama Iqbal Campus. Since then it was operating on traditional letter printing system.

In 2002, after the gap of a 50 years, the present Vice-Chancellor visited the Press and ordered to construct a new press building at Quaid-e-Azam Campus. He further instructed to replace old printing system with offset printing system.

A new building with latest equipments and adequate space was constructed. The press has now been shifted from Allama Iqbal Campus to Quaid-I-Azam Campus.

The University has also replaced its old printing system with new offset system as follows:-

•  A complete range of offset machines (size 11'' to 36'') is working.

•  State of the art computer lab has been set up for designing and composing, and

•  A plate making unit and lamination machine has also been installed.

Now the Press has undertaken a wide range of jobs to provide the facility of quality printing and publishing for all the university department at a much cheaper rates than the market.

New Guest Rooms In addition to 5 guest rooms, 8 new guest rooms have been constructed and furnished for the visitors/guest speakers etc. A car has also been purchased to provide transport facility to the guests, on payment.

Peaceful Atmosphere : Academic freedom and congenial environment has been created in PU. It is mentioned with satisfaction that all activities of this University continued smoothly since September 1999. All the programs are being run within the time-frame fixed for each without any disruption.

Security: One of our major responsibilities has been to ensure enabling environment for learning and teaching. Several steps have been taken to strengthen the security system of the PU Campus. Out of eight gates, four have been closed to stop outside interference. Illegal residents have been evicted from the hostels. Regular checks are being carried out. Grills and walls are being raised for security purposes. Motor cycles and cycles have been purchased for security staff. As a result of these security measures, thefts/dacoities/carlifting etc. have been eliminated.

Housing Society: There was no Housing Scheme for PU Employees. The present administration under-took this project to resolve outstanding problem of the employees and acquired more than 2300 Kanals of land at Raiwind Road for allotment to PU all teachers and all employees(serving or retired) after approval from the Syndicate in the year 2002.   It is worth mentioning here that the amount for purchase of land has been paid by the PU to Punjab Liquidation Board as part payment of the land.  This amount will be recovered from the PU Employees through installments.  A PU high powered committee has been appointed which is managing this Scheme.

Child Welfare Centre PU Child Welfare Centre was started in 2003 for training of special /retarded children. Wives and daughters of PU employees undergo literacy program, religious training and training in stitching/wearing alongwith computer training is being imparted free of cost. The Centre is organized by the lady wives of Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and RO-I free of cost.

Relief Activities for Earthquake Victims:
a.  To provide relief to Earthquake victims, on 10th October 2005 we sent 8 teachers, 5 doctors, 6 paramedics and 46 students to Balakot and Muzaffarabad for 3 weeks. Again in November,
5 teachers 1 doctor and 54 students were sent to Gari Dopatta, as part of Universities Chapter National Volunteer Movement.  We donated relief goods worth Rs.4.5 millions.
b.  In addition, PU teachers, staff and students donated Rs. One crore in President’s Earthquake Relief Fund. In addition, some students from Muzaffarabad University have been given admission with full fee concession and those from affected areas have also been given full fee concession.
c. We have also installed FM 104.6 Punjab University Radio Station at Muzaffarabad for mental relief and rehabilitation of earthquake affectees.

Purchase of Land for Residential Colony of PU Employees : There was no Housing Scheme for PU Employees. The present administration under-took this project to resolve outstanding problem of the employees and acquired more than 2300 Kanals of land at Raiwind Road for allotment to PU all teachers and all employees(serving or retired) after approval from the Syndicate in the year 2002. It is worth mentioning here that the amount for purchase of land has been paid by the PU to Punjab Liquidation Board as part payment of the land. This amount will be recovered from the PU Employees through installments. A PU high powered committee has been appointed which is managing this Scheme.

Transport Facility: PU has 43 buses. Two Hino buses were purchased in the year 2000 to ease the problem of transport. However, due to increase in the number of students five additional Hino buses were purchased in the year 2001 – 2002. To facilitate the increasing students two additional buses are in the process of purchase. Two air conditioned buses and a coaster have been donated by the Primeminister. Similarly two buses have been donated by Punjab Provincial Government. Four new buses have been added to the fleet of PU buses in 2005.

Underpasses and Overhead Bridges The Quaid-e-Azam Campus is divided by a canal into two areas consisting of Academic and Hostel blocks. To facilitate the students of the Campus for easy and shortest approach between Hostel and Academic Blocks three overhead bridges were constructed in 1999.

In addition to these three overhead bridges eight bridges at ground level were also available at the canal for the pedestrian/vehicles etc. which generally hindered the swift flow of traffic due to which main purpose of construction of subject bridges was not fulfilled.

With the construction of underpass near Doctors Hospital the Provincial Govt. demolished the above-mentioned ground level eight bridges of the canal for the smooth/speedy flow of traffic. This demolition bridges caused great problem/difficulties for the students of the campus. Therefore, construction of two underpasses was sanctioned by the Provincial Govt. for easy approach of pedestrian/vehicles between the academic block and hostels. The construction work is in progress and hopefully will be completed shortly.

Increase in Number of Foreign Students The number of foreign students studying in PU in 1999-2000 was only 23 which was very low due to unrest and insecurity.  During the last 8 years due to peaceful and congenial environment and improvement in the overall disciplines, the number of foreign students has increased to 113 this year.  PU is trying to attract more and more foreign students. HEC was approached to take measures for adopting an easy procedure of admission of foreign students instead of the cumbersome procedure and the HEC has simplified the procedure which will increase the number of foreign students.

Ranking of Universities by HEC Recently, HEC conducted ranking of the Universities based on a criteria formulated by the HEC.  Punjab University ranked second amongst 25 General Universities out of 52 Universities evaluated.

In the HEC accreditation, we have excelled and ranked Ist in the: number of PhDs produced, student selectivity on merit, student admissions 60% and above, full time PhD faculty, training of faculty, number of international seminars attended, number of papers presented in National seminars, international research projects organized, own income, recurring expenditure, number of sports teams participated and ranking in inter-university games.

However, some of the areas in which we were 2nd and in some 3rd are: number of research papers, laboratory equipment, number of books in libraries, PhD faculty to total faculty and journals published.  These areas comparatively take longer time to show results, particularly when the short falls of 80s and 90s had to be redressed and transformed gradually towards professionalism and enlightened moderation.