GCU professor donates land, lifetime savings to Endowment Fund Trust for deserving students

Lahore: A Government College University (GCU) teacher has declared donating his savings for his institute.

Dr Zaheer Ahmed Siddique, eighty two years old prominent poet as well as famous professor of Persian language, promised to donate his Rs 140 million land and Rs 5million lifetime savings to the GCU Endowment Fund Trust for the scholarships of financially challenged aspirants.

Prof Siddique, the author of 52 books also involving the first Persian­ to­ Urdu dictionary of Pakistan, handed over the Cheque of Rs 5 million to Vice-Chancellor of university Prof Dr Hasan Amir Shah on Wednesday.

The son of Prof Siddique Naveed Siddique is the adviser to Bill Gates at Microsoft whereas his daughter is the professor of English literature at the FCC University, Lahore. Furthermore, his younger son works at managerial post along with a multinational company in Pakistan.

Prof Siddique said he had initiated a legal process to transfer the land to the university.

While addressing on event, Vice-Chancellor Prof Shah said the inspirational Dr Siddique, who has over 50 year meritorious services in research, administration, and teaching for Government College University, had been donating all his income to the GCU Endowment Trust since long for the fee of eligible aspirants.

He said Prof Siddique had set an example which other will follow. He also said that “Prof Zaheer is not a rich person at all, and all he had, has now been donated to the Endowment Fund of university”.

The secretary of GCU Endowment Fund Trust Dr Khalid Manzoor Butt said that GCU was the only government sector university in Pakistan to have an active endowment fund trust, which provides scholarships worth more than Rs20 million to the deserving aspirants annually.

He said that the endowment fund never spent the principal amount however the profit earned from the principal worth was spent on financially challenged aspirants.