Old Ravian pledges funding for GCU’s Int’l business school

Lahore: An eminent industrialist and alumnus of the Government College University Lahore, Iqbal Z Ahmed, has pledged funding for the establishment, infrastructure and operations of an international school for business studies at his alma mater, saying that the state-of-the-art school should be a centre of excellence for financial and management studies in the country. The announcement in this regard was made at the meeting of trustees and executive committee members of GCU Endowment Fund Trust with the university’s academic heads. “It’s a very big initiative by Mr Iqbal Z Ahmed and we seriously have no words to express gratitude for his great and unprecedented philanthropic act to gift his alma mater an intentional business school that has no match in the country,” said Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah.

Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) President Ijaz A Mumtaz was Guest of Honour at the ceremony and also donated Rs 2.5 million to GCU EFT for initiating scholarships, while GCU Department of Persian Distinguished Professor Dr Zaheer Ahmad Siddiqui, who every month donates his salary to the university’s endowment fund, also handed over a cheque of his salary to the Vice Chancellor for a fee of a financially-challenged student. Overall, donations cheques of about Rs 4.5 million were presented to the Vice Chancellor at the ceremony for the trust.

Addressing the meeting, Iqbal Z Ahmed , who is also President and one of the major donors of the GCU Endowment Fund Trust, discussed in detail the timeline, infrastructure, faculty and other requirements for the international business school with the university’s senior faculty members and Vice Chancellor and also set a deadline of March 1, 2016 for the ground-breaking ceremony for the state-of-the-art building for the school that shall produce the world class entrepreneurs and financial and management experts for the country. He said he on the behalf of his family and his personal behalf committed to provide complete infrastructure and financial support for the working of the school.  The Vice Chancellor tasked the GCU Management Studies Department Chairman Mr Najaf Yawar Khan to set up consultations and chalk out a comprehensive plan for the school.

Speaking on the occasion, Ijaz A Mumtaz said that GCU had a legacy of 151 years which gave it an edge over the other higher education institutions and with the adequate support of alumni, government and industry; it could do miracles in the field of education and research.

Addressing the meeting, GCU EFT Executive Committee Secretary Dr Khalid Manzoor Butt proudly said that the university’s endowment fund had swelled to 210 million in just six years due to the untiring efforts of its executive committee which included Dr Parvez Hassan, Mian Misbah ur Rehman, Mian Muhammad Ashraf and Mr Shameem Ahmad. He said that the target of executive committee was to take the endowment to minimum Rs 1,000 million in coming years, so that it could fund the education of every financially-challenged student of the university.

Main Misba-ur-Rahman, Mian Muhammad Ashraf, Shameem Ahmad and Javaid Oberoi also pledged to continue to work for the development of their alma mater and its endowment fund.

In his concluding remarks, the Vice Chancellor appreciated the efforts of Executive Committee for building an endowment fund which is unprecedented in the public sector. However, he said that they might broaden the scope of fund to support faculty development and other uplift projects of the university. He also briefed the EFT trustees and executive committee about shortage of faculty and other challenges being faced by the university.