November 4, 2001	Sunday	Shaba’an 17, 1422

KARACHI, Nov 3: Sindh Governor, Mohammedmian Soomro, has asked the Karachi University to increase its endowments in order to make it self-reliant and viable.

Delivering his presidential speech at the 16th annual convocation of the university on Saturday, Mr Soomro said that the KU should enhance its links with alumni and activate them for raising more endowments, which would ultimately ensure full autonomy to the university in its affairs.

In order to reduce government interference, the university should focus on the acquisition of endowments on priority basis, he added.

About 350 graduates, who had gotten themselves registered for the convocation, received degrees of PhD, MPhil, masters and honours in the faculties of Arts, Science, Business Administration and Commerce, Islamic Studies, Medicine and Pharmacy. In all 55 gold medals were awarded to students, in person, for securing first position or achieving other distinctions at various KU examinations.

In his address, the governor observed that educational institutions should promote national integrity, patience, tolerance and nationalism. These should be kept free of all kinds of polarization so that the standard of education and viable atmosphere at these institutions could be maintained.

He said that advancement in the field of higher education and modern subjects was necessary for the country’s development. He opined that education without any standard was meaningless and therefore efforts should be made to maintain transparency in the process of admissions, recruitment of teachers and examinations.

He said that the KU played a significant role in the development of human resources for the country. He appreciated the various ongoing projects and hoped that these would be completed within the due course of time.

The governor said that he would try to help get buses and an ambulance for the university and fulfil other demands soon. He again expressed the view that the KU should work in coordination with the community, which would help reduce problems.

Earlier, Mr Soomro said that the government is also looking into the possibility of the usage of desalination technology in the agriculture sector in view of the shortage of water.

The KU Vice-Chancellor, Dr Zafar Said Saify, pointed out that a professor of the university had conducted successful experiments of making barren land cultivable through saline water by using the desalination technique.

In his report, the KU VC said that despite limited resources and difficulties, the university was continuing with development projects. In collaboration with the private sector, works pertaining to establishment of biotechnology and genetics engineering institute, department of genetics, institute of information technology, institute of mass communication and institute of molecular medicine and drug development were being carried out at due pace, he added.

He informed the audience that the university intended to establish an institute of languages by merging its different departments functioning under the faculty of arts. At the institute, research work on local and international languages would be conducted, in addition to the teaching of different languages, he said.

He said that the KU teachers were fully utilizing the IT facility in order to enrich themselves academically and transfer the knowledge to their respective students. The new facilities include a cyber cafe at the central library, while another cafe was being established exclusively for teachers.

In a situation when all the grant money received from the UGC was being spent on staff salary, it was difficult to provide equipment and chemicals to the various KU laboratories. The ministry of science and technology, under the leadership of Dr Atta-ur-Rehman, was doing a great favour to the KU by realizing its requirements and providing a huge sum of money in this regard, added the VC.

He said that the number of PhD teachers at the KU was higher than any other university in the country. About 20 male and female students were completing their research, leading to PhD every year under the supervision of these teachers, he mentioned.

He urged the KU chancellor and the governor to extend special assistance towards the establishment of a multipurpose convention centre at the campus. Congratulating the graduates, he hoped that they would prove themselves worthy to society and contribute towards the development of the country in their individual capacity as well as through what they had learnt at the university.