GCU's convocation: Governor rule an extreme measure: Baligh.

LAHORE -- Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman has said imposing the governor rule in a province is not good, but it is an extreme measure to control a law and order situation.

He was addressing the first session of the three-day 20th convocation of the Government College University (GCU) here on Friday.

As many as 52 scholars were awarded the doctorate of philosophy (PhD) degrees in various disciplines, besides medals for their outstanding academic and co-curricular activities, on the first day of the GCU convocation.

As many as 2,000 degrees would be awarded this year during the three-day convocation, including 490 MS/MPhil, 374 MA/MSc and 1,057 BA/BSc (Hons) degrees.

Mr Rehman said there was a constitutional provision to impose the governor's rule in a province, but if resorted to it could prove to be the worst nightmare.

He regretted that the entry and exit routes to various cities were blocked for several hours (during the PTI protest), which made it difficult for the people to reach hospitals, offices and other destinations.

He said the situation was getting worse and if the law and order situation worsened further, it would be an extreme measure to impose the governor's rule.

Mr Rehman said he believed in freedom of expression and did not ban entry of politicians in academic institutions.

'I have always been in favour of listening to everyone's viewpoint and then analysing it.'

However, he said, there was a ban on hate speech all over the world and no one should be allowed to level false allegations.

The governor, as chancellor of all universities in the province, said the students should not play in the hands of anyone and should take interest in politics with a critical thinking.

He said the students should explore, on their own, that during which period the country was making progress and should read the Transparency International reports to know about transparency in the affairs of state under different governments.

He advised the students to judge any...