KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has directed the Sindh Food Authority to inspect food quality in the canteens and messes of government and private universities across the province and submit a report within two months.
The PAC met on Wednesday in the committee room with Nisar Khuhro in the chair. The meeting was attended by committee members Qasim Siraj Soomro and Makhdoom Fakhrul Zaman, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) Jamshoro Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Ikram Din Ujjan and other officials concerned.
The committee reviewed audit paras relating to LUMHS Jamshoro. When PAC Chairman Nisar Khuhro asked how many hostels the university had, the vice chancellor said LUMHS had eight hostels for male and female students, with 250 students living in each.
Asked how food quality was checked in the university’s messes and canteens, the vice chancellor said the Sindh Food Authority checked the canteens. The PAC chairman said that if the food quality was satisfactory, the university should produce the Food Authority’s certificate.
The PAC then directed the Sindh Food Authority to inspect food quality in the canteens and messes of all government and private universities in Sindh and report back within two months.
During the meeting, audit officials raised objections over the unauthorised occupation of 69 LUMHS bungalows and quarters. The vice chancellor said 32 of the houses and quarters were occupied by authorised LUMHS hospital employees and staff, from whom monthly rent was being collected. Retired and other employees had obtained stay orders from the Sindh High Court on 12 houses, and those cases had been pending for three years. Letters had been written to the Jamshoro deputy commissioner and SSP to have the remaining houses and quarters vacated, he said.
The PAC directed the Jamshoro DC and SSP to vacate the LUMHS houses and quarters occupied by unauthorised persons.
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