Punjab Study

LAHORE:16 April: An influential deputy secretary at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat has got included his name among the officials who will be leading a delegation of position holding students on a foreign tour in June this year, it is learnt.
According to details, the Punjab Higher Education Department had moved a summary to the CMís Secretariat, recommending Government College University (GCU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Khaleequr Rehman, Director General Protocol Punjab Asjad Ghani Tahir, the deputy secretary (Academics) of the Higher Education Department, Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISE) Lahoreís Research and Coordination Officer (RCO) Sidra Amir as the officials leading the studentsí delegation.
Sources, privy to the developments, said Deputy Secretary (Assembly) Shahid Iqbal, exercising his influence for being part of the CMís Secretariat, however, managed to get dropped the name of the deputy secretary (Academics) and instead got included his own name.
It is pertinent to mention here that for the past few years, the foreign tour is being organised by the Punjab government for toppers of various examinations to visit leading universities of the world on special instructions of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
It is further learnt that name of RCO Sidra Amir has also been dropped. Interestingly, a high-powered committee, comprising Punjab Chief Secretary Nasir Mahmood Khosa, MPA Rana Afzal, MPA Khawaja Imran Nazir and Deputy Secretary Shahid Iqbal, has been formed to select a female member to accompany the delegation.
A government official said it was strange that such a high-powered committee had been formed to select just one member. He said if there was need of any such committee, it should have been formed with the mandate to select all the officials, including the deputy secretary, who would be a part of the delegation. The sources further said the names forwarded by the department were duly approved by Punjab Education Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman.The news.