Lahore, Mar 25: New Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani was a balanced personality during the days when he pursued his journalism degree at the Punjab University (PU) in 1974-76, remember his former instructors and old classmates.

According to them, he was never interested in politics and never tried to impress anyone with his family background, and behaved well with everyone.

One of Gillani’s journalism instructors and former chairman of the Mass Communication Department at PU, Dr Maskeen Ali Hijazi, said he was punctual and intelligent but not at all interested in politics during his stay at PU. Nor did he aspire to secure top positions in his studies, but as an intelligent student he scored good marks in his annual examinations, he added.

Dr Shafique Jullandhry, another former chairman of the Mass Communication Department at PU, termed Yousaf a simple, shy and above average student.

An old PU classmate of Gillani's, Dr Mujahid Ali Mansoori said Gillani had a balanced personality and that his family had good traditions. His family was popular due to their religious background, he said, and added that because of this Gillani had the experience of listening to poor people. (ANI)