MULTAN - Commercial officer at Uzbek Embassy in Islamabad Jasur Saydakhmedov has said that recommendations for Multan-Tashkent direct flights will be sent to the Uzbekistan government.

Talking to the Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture Multan (MNS-UAM) Vice Chancellor, the Uzbek diplomat briefed the varsity officials on tourism and business opportunities in Uzbekistan. He said that Multan-Tashkent direct flights would be strongly recommended by the Embassy to promote imports and exports to and from Multan.

Visa Consul at the Uzbek Embassy Shukhrat Zaripov assured the MNS-UAM officials that all out support would be extended to the delegates from the embassy for holding second mango festival in Tashkent.

Earlier, VC Dr Asif Ali said that the varsity was working on a number of joint ventures with Uzbekistan including faculty training, mango export and agriculture. He hoped that the joint projects would deliver very positive results in near future. He told the Uzbek diplomats that there was a lot of room for joint ventures in many fields and both the countries could benefit from the potential. He said that the varsity held first mango festival in Tashkent last year and now it was planning to hold a second one in coming days.

Senator Rana Mahmoodul Hassan said on the occasion that a little effort could increase bilateral trade between Pakistan and Uzbekistan manifolds.

UPROOTING MAFIA PLEDGED: Commissioner Multan Division Bilal Ahmad Butt has said that booti mafia is the biggest enemy of hard working students and all-out efforts are being made to uproot this menace from the society.

He observed this while inspecting examination centres for Intermediate Part-11 examinations here on Wednesday. He said that it was the responsibility of entire society to pinpoint this menace so that they could be prevented from disturbing examination process. He disclosed that entire examination system had been made computerized in light of previous experiences to make the examinations maximum transparent and to eradicate booti mafia. He added that strict measures were adopted to clear the examination centres of use of unfair means and corruption.

He disclosed that a monitoring cell had been set up by the Punjab Government to check examination centres while a committee containing Deputy Commissioner, District Police Officer and concerned CEO Education had been constituted at each district of the province to carry out inspection of examination centres. “Similarly, examination inspectors are deployed at all examination centres who will submit their reports on daily basis,” he added.

The Regional Police Officer was also present on this occasion.

Later on, the Commissioner and the RPO inspected wheat procurement centres and talked to the growers. The Commissioner told the wheat growers that the process to review the applications of those farmers, who were missing in the lists, had begun. He assured the farmers that their problems would be solved soon.