LAHORE - The plan to upgrade the Government College of Technology (GCT), Rasul, to a university was delayed after the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) raised objections to the charter of the proposed Rasul Technology University (RTU) at a recent meeting.
As per documents, a meeting of the steering committee formed by Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the upgrade of GCT, located in the Mandi Bahauddin District, was held at the Committee Room of the IC&I Department on September 18. Punjab Minister for Higher Education Raza Ali Gillani chaired the meeting.
Minister for Women Development Hameeda Waheed Uddin, Aziz Akbar from the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Engineering and Technology-Lahore, HEC Director General (Federal) Nazeer Hussain, IC&l Department Senior Economic Adviser Javed lqbal Malik, PHEC Director (P&D) Nouman Maqbool Rao, HED representative lshtiaq Ahmad, Tevta DGM AtauI Mustafa, Tevta Manager (Legal) Waheed Zafar, IC&I Department senior law officer and other officials attended the meeting.
As per documents, the IC&I senior economic adviser briefed the meeting on the matter and said that changes in the draft act for the proposed university would be incorporated in the light of recommendations of the steering committee and the draft would be resubmitted to chief minister’s office.
On this occasion, Gillani sought comments on the draft act for the proposed university. In response, the Tevta general manager (academic) said that as per Section 5 of the Act “constituent college” means a college maintained and administered by the university. By virtue of Section 4, if the Government College of Technology under the control of Tevta-Punjab becomes a constituent college of the university, all government colleges of technology under the control of Tevta will be administered by the university, as per language of the Act.
The HED representative pointed out that Section 5 of the charter of the proposed university clashed with Tevta’s interest. Therefore, he said, the charter needed to be reworded to safeguard Tevta’s interests.
The minister for women’s development and HEC Director General (Federal) Nazeer Hussain endorsed the proposal. However, the HED minister said that a sub-committee had been formed to refine the proposed legislation/Act and submit recommendations to the steering committee within seven days, in order to avoid duplication of functions and address the concerns shown by the Tevta general manager.
The IC&I secretary will be chairman of the committee, while HEC director general, PHEC director (P&D), deputy secretary of the HED and Prof Aziz Akbar from the UET will be members of the committee. The Tevta general manager (academic) has been named secretary to the committee.
