The Open Public Thesis Defense of Ms. Afeefa Jarral (Supervised by Dr. Imran Ali) and Mr. Akhlaaq Wazeer (Supervised by Dr. Raja Tahir Mahmood & Co-Supervised by Dr. Usman Waheed, IMDC Islamabad) was held in the Department of Biotechnology. Dr. Muhammad Sheeraz served as the external examiner for Ms. Afeefa Jarral, while Prof. Dr. Muhammad Javaid Asad, UIBB PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, served as the external examiner for Mr. Akhlaaq Wazeer. The defenses were attended by Prof. Dr. Rehana Asghar T.I., former VC MUST Mirpur; Prof. Dr. Maqsood Ahmed (online), former VC MUST Mirpur; Prof. Dr. Rashida Hussain (Dean, Faculty of N&AS MUST); Mr. Kamran Hameed (Controller of Examinations); Dr. Anzar Mahmood (Director AS&RB); Prof. Dr. Khurram Pervez (Director QEC); Dr. Abdul Jabbar (Dy. Director QEC); faculty members from different Departments, Ph.D. & M.Phil. research scholars and others.

After the presentation by the scholar on the concerned day, there was a detailed question and answer session in which students, faculty members and the external examiner participated. After that, the supervisory committee, external examiner, Dean FN&AS, Chairperson, the Controller of Examinations, Director QEC and Director AS&RB made the final decision about the defense in a separate meeting. The external examiner announced the final decision and appreciated the scholar and the Department of Biotechnology for conducting quality and excellent research work. Ms. Afeefa is the 12th PhD scholar and Mr. Akhlaaq is the 13th PhD scholar of the Department of Biotechnology. Finally, Dr. Raja Tahir Mahmood, Assistant Professor/Supervisor, thanked all the respected guests, faculty members and students for attending the theses defenses.