He was addressing the 17th Convocation of the NUCES here on Saturday. Four hundred and eighty graduates were awarded degrees of BS (Computer Science, Telecommunication Engineering, Computer Engineering), MS (Computer Science, Software Project Management, Mathem-atics) and MBA. The minister said that Punjab government was making concrete efforts to support the needy students.
Punjab Education Endowment Fund (PEEF) is one such effort, through which government aims to ensure that no talented and less fortunate student is deprived of realising the goal of achieving higher education. Speaking on the occasion Rector of the university Dr Amir Muhammed has said that merit was the only criterion for admission and there was no discrimination on the basis of domicile, ethnicity, religion or gender.
He said that the university provides financial aid to the needy students as Qarz-e-Hasna, which amounted to more than Rs 50 million in the current year. Director Lahore campus of the university, Dr Arshad Hussain has said that young graduates should continue their efforts through innovation and creativity for achieving the goal of making Pakistan a modern social welfare state.