The University of Agriculture Faisalabad under the USAID Funded Merit and Needs Based Scholarship gave away scholarship debit cards among 74 students of the varsity.

The session was chaired by UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Zafar Iqbal Randhawa while USAID Merit and Need Based Scholarship Project Director at HEC Muhammad Azhar Ali Khan, Directorate of Financial Assistance Director UAF Dr Manzoor Ahmad and other notables also spoke on the occasion. Moreover, 17 students were awarded scholarships worth Rs 8,75,000 under the Professional Education Foundation scholarship scheme. Talking to participants, Dr Zafar Iqbal said that UAF was home to 26,000 students and the most of them were belonging to rural background. He added that around 30 percent of students at the campus were getting scholarship. He urged the students to devote their time and energies for the cause of enhancing their knowledge, and skills that are the guarantee of bright future. He said that university was making all-out efforts to ensure quality education and to conduct tangible researches for the welfare of the society, farming community and other stakeholders. He showed his concern that the youths are glued to mobile phones, internet, and TV screens. He urged them to spend their time in libraries as well as sports grounds, he said, adding that sports is essential for the physical and mental health. He said that it is a matter of the concern that the sports grounds were presenting the deserted look. He added that the university was mulling a plan to introduce sports course mandatory to flourish the sports culture. Dr Manzoor Ahmad said that he quality education would pave the way for the uplift of any country and make the development to compete with the rest of the world. He said that his office is working round the clock to address the financial issue of the students. The University of Agriculture Faisalabad in collaboration with Turkish International Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) on Friday distributed 30 cows among the thirty rural women as step towards poverty alleviation. The ceremony was chaired by Dean Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, UAF Dr Zafar Iqbal Qureshi and renowned veterinarian Dr Laeeq Akbar Lodhi and TIKA Senior Program Officer Mehmood Saeed, and TIKA Program Officer Waqas Shabbir Khan also attended. He added that the project was meant to raise income of the rural women farmers. He said Turkey always stood with Pakistan in the difficult times including earthquake, floods, and helped us in poverty alleviation. He said that Pakistan development is directly linked to the rural development. Special focus is needed to address the problems of rural population. Mehmood Saeed said that they had earlier ran a project with UAF over the goat distribution under which 540 groats were distributed among the poor families. He said that TİKA carries out the task of being a cooperating mechanism for institutions, organizations, universities, non-profit organizations, and the private sector. In addition, it functions as a platform for these actors to come together and it records the development aid carried out by Turkey.