LAHORE: Federal Minister of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Prof Ahsan Iqbal inaugurated newly-established academic block, Prof Dr Manzoor Clinical Sciences Block, Iqbal Hall and Fatima Hall (hostels) for boys and girls at the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences (UVAS) Lahore sub-campus Khan Bahadur Chaudhary Mushtaq Ahmad College of Veterinary & Animal Sciences Narowal.
Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmed, former UVAS Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Manzoor Ahmed, Principle KBCMA-CVAS Prof Dr Rana Muhammad Younus, former MPAs Rana Abdul Mannan, Mr Akber Ali Khan & Ramesh Singh Arora and a large number of public from civil society, faculty members, students and farmers attended the ceremony.
Meanwhile, Prof Ahsan Iqbal also performed groundbreaking of the project “Strengthening KBCMA-CVAS Narowal” and under this project an administrative block, a multipurpose complex, sports complex, university diagnostic lab, pet hospital, foreign faculty and boys hostel, resident colony, daycare centre, medical centre, cafeteria and tuck shops, small animal training and research centre, bio waste unit will be establish on this campus.
The academic block comprises of classrooms, fully air conditioned library, seminar room, conference hall and laboratory and Prof Dr Manzoor Clinical Sciences Block comprises of four sections including clinical veterinary medicine, clinical veterinary surgery, theriogenology & postmortem sections while two new students hostels namely Iqbal Hall for boys & Fatima Hall for girls are equipped with all necessary facilities. This project has been completed in two years and cost Rs 1.111 billion.
Addressing the audience, Ahsan Iqbal said that the government is providing state-of-the-art facilities (hardware) to educational institutes and now it is the responsibility of institutional faculty and researchers by using their knowledge and skills to create problem solving software, do applied research for the development of our country. He said KBCMA-CVAS Narowal campus is equipped with the latest education and research facilities and its students/researchers can compete with other high class world famous veterinary education students.
He urged the leadership of Narowal campus to prepare a road map for enhancing poultry, dairy and meat production. He said that it is direly needed to start meat export and fulfill the requirements of international standard for enhancing meat export and boosting national economy.
He acknowledged the role of UVAS & KBCMA-CVAS leadership for the development of Narowal campus and urged them to bring this college to world class level. He said that we have to change the thinking of our students from negative politics and hate speech to learning research skills for the national development.
Speaking on the occasion, the VC said that UVAS has been ranked among 401-600 in World University Rankings in the latest Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2023, getting 2nd position among all public sector universities of the Punjab and 4th position among all public sector universities of Pakistan. He also mentioned that UVAS ranked 4th among public sector universities in the Higher Education Commission national sports ranking.
He said that UVAS is focusing on imparting practical knowledge and communication skills to its students. He said that every year UVAS is producing a large number of trained graduates who are serving in livestock, poultry, dairy, food and pharmaceutical industries and playing their lead role in the development of national economy of Pakistan.
Prof Rana Younus highlighted the role of Ahsan Iqbal in the development of Narowal, especially in education sector. He also spoke about the services of Khan Bahadur Ch Mushtaq Ahmad for the uplift of veterinary education.
Earlier, Ahsan Iqbal along with Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Nasim Ahmad visited different areas of CVAS Narowal Campus including library, class rooms, library, seminar rooms, conference hall, student hostels facilities and laboratory, etc.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023