Lahore: In an unusual step, the Punjab government has appointed Professor Dr. Shazia Bashir as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of Government College University (GCU), Lahore.

According to the media report, Professor Dr. Shazia Bashir has been serving in GCU Lahore since 1996. Before that, she was the Dean of Mathematics and Physical Sciences Department. He did M.Phil from University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore and PhD from Technical University of Vienna, Austria.

As Director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Physics and Institute of Physics and Chairperson of the Department of Physics, she has contributed significantly to research in the field, with over 150 research papers published in reputed international journals.

She has been appointed by Governor Punjab Baligh-ur-Rehman for a period of four months or till appointment of regular Vice Chancellor. Faculty, staff and students have welcomed this historic appointment.

However, the appointment comes at a time when there is a leadership crisis in Punjab's public sector universities, with at least 29 institutions currently functioning without permanent vice-chancellors, leading to many academic and administrative problems.

The Higher Education Department (HED) looks after the affairs of 34 government universities of the province. The term of permanent vice-chancellors in 22 universities is expiring 1.5 years early and the term of four others is ending about six months before, while the Vice chancellors are also to be appointed in three new government universities.

The lack of permanent leadership has raised concerns among academic staff associations of universities, who believe that the absence of permanent vice-chancellors is affecting the quality of teaching and research in universities.

In many universities of the province, the most important posts including vice chancellors, registrars, treasurers and controllers of examinations are lying vacant.

Islamabad: The district and session court Islamabad has confirmed bail Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) leader Azam Swati in the case of violating section-144.

The court approved the bail of Azam Swati for the transit guarantee of Rs5,000.

Lawyer Ali Bokhari stated that Azam Swati was apprehended in this case and the very next day the court granted him bail. He was termed as a proclaim offender and due to the absence from court his bail was rejected. In this case, the police officer was the ally which is illegal.

Later the court heard all the arguments of lawyer Ali Bokhari and grant a bail to Azam Swati.

It should be noted that a case was registered on Azam Swati in 2014 on violating the section-144.  

Islamabad: Taking notice of the deliberate delay in tax cases, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday ordered the suspension of Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue Islamabad and all the relevant officers and conduct an inquiry.

According to the details, the Prime Minister took notice of the Federal Board of Revenue's (FBR) lawyer's request to delay the date of a case in the court.

Shehbaz Sharif said that hundreds of billions of national treasuries is subject to legal disputes, he will not accept any kind of carelessness and negligence in this regard. He is personally monitoring the reforms in the tax system under his promise to the people. ‘We have to work hard day and night to save every penny of the country and increase the revenue,’ he added.

It is pertinent to note that on April 18, the federal government had prepared to abolish the offices of Commissioner Inland Revenue Appeal.

It is reported that legislation to abolish the offices was rushed through Parliament, and cases of the Commissioner of Inland Revenue would be transferred to the tribunal.

The government document stated that 19,899 cases are pending in these 35 offices, 1158 billion rupees worth of tax cases are pending in Inland Revenue Commissioner Appellate Offices.

The document said that 71,664 tax-related cases are pending in the tribunals, the pending cases in the tribunals are related to Rs2,237 billion. At the moment, a total of 145,036 cases are pending in various courts.

According to the document, 4,236 billion rupees of tax matters have to be decided in the pending cases. 19,528 cases worth Rs740 billion are pending in the four high courts. The 3455 tax-related cases are pending in the Supreme Court.