Daily Times

The Punjab Assembly on Monday passed three bills pertaining to education sector with a majority during its current session

The Punjab Assembly passed Grand Asian University Sialkot Bill 2021, Lahore Institute of Science and Technology Lahore Bill 2021 and Ghazi National Institute of Engineering and Science, D.G Khan Bill 2021, during its current session which started two hours and 10 minutes behind its scheduled time with Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in the chair.

Responding to questions, Punjab Minister for Higher Education Raja Yasir Humayun said the Punjab government wanted to set up more women universities in the province so as soon the funds would be available, work on establishment of new universities would be started, adding that investigation should be conducted if any sub-standard material was used for the construction of universities.

The Department of Communication and Works had constructed such universities so a request would be sent to Punjab Chief Minister for taking action against officers of C&W department involved in using sub-standard material in construction of universities.

Responding to a question of PML-N MPA Nawaz Chohan, the minister said that there were five colleges situated in Gujranwala, within the distance of five to 10 kilometers to meet the education requirements of people, adding that there was no plan to establish further educational colleges in Gujranwala as the existing colleges were fulfilling the requirements.

During the session, assembly members pointed out the shortage of fertilizer and grievance of farmers over non-availability of fertilizers, on which Punjab Minister for Agriculture Nauman Ahmad Langrial said the Punjab government had launched Punjab Urea Portal for convenience of farmers, adding that action would be taken on the complaints registered at Portal while fines and FIRs would also be registered on complaints. Every person can check the record of complaints at the portal, he added.

Panel of Chairman Mian Shafee also verified the shortage of fertilizers in the province and said that farmers had to face the shortage or non-availability of fertilizers, due to which Urea prices could also go up significantly.

Punjab Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Raja Basharat said that it was decided to take up the matter of shortage of fertilizer to business advisory committee so that a general debate could be made possible over the issue of shortage of urea.

Later, on completion of agenda, Panel of Chairman adjourned the session till December 21 (Tuesday) at 1:00 pm.