LAHORE: The Government College University, Lahore, turned 151 on Thursday.

Started in the Haveli of Dhian Singh in the Walled City on Jan 1, 1864, with just nine students and three teachers, the GC now has 10,554 students and 393 teachers on completing its 150 years of excellence.

Only the academic heads of the GCU gathered at its syndicate committee room to commemorate the Founders` Day due to the prevailing sadness and grief in the country following the massacre of innocent children in a terrorist attack at the Army Public School in Peshawar.

The university also postponed the concluding ceremony of its 150 years celebrations and other scheduled festivities.

GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Khaleequr Rahman said on the occasion that terrorists could not deter them from their journey to enlightenment. He said a grand ceremony would be held in February 2015 toconclude the GCU sesquicentennial celebrations. He said that 2014 had remained overall year of splendid academic, research and co-curricular achievements for the GCU.

He proudly said the university hosted 24 international conferences last year which was a national record.

He informed the academic heads that restoration work on the historical clock-tower building of the GCU was under way with a special grant by the prime minister.

He said records showed that the building was completed in 1877 on 3,700 square feet in the north of Soldiers Garden (Gol Bagh) at a cost of just Rs320,000.

The vice chancellor said that in 1864, the Government College, Lahore, was initially affiliated with the Calcutta University as there was no university in this part of the subcontinent at that time. It was raised to the status of university in 2002 and renamed GC University, Lahore.

He said the college was established on the pattern of Cambridge and Oxford and it was available in historical records that it was decided that all students of this college would begiven 10 to 15 rupees scholarship annually. In the first year, the fee of the college was Rs2 annually, which was deducted from the scholarships of the students.

Keeping in view this historical perspective, he had slashed the students` fee by almost 23pc in 2011 and didn`t increase it for the next three years, the VC claimed.

He proudly said Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, N.M. Rashid, Patras Bukhari, Ashfaq Ahmad, Bano Qudsla, NobelLaureate Prof Dr Abdus Salam, former chief justice M.R. Kyani, former chief justice Naseem Hassan Shah, former justices Javed Iqbal, Khalilur Rahman Ramday and Khwaja Muhammad Sharif were Old Ravians.

He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif also were Old Ravians.

The vice chancellor paid a rich tribute to the efforts of Dr Leitner, the first principal of the GC. Prof Rehman said they would maintain wonderful traditions of academic excellence, research, promotion of new ideas and above all, respect for others` belief and views.