TOPI, Nov 24: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has said that development in technological field is a key to progress.

He was speaking at a prize distribution ceremony held here on Saturday under the aegis of Association for Competing Machines at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology.

The governor said that the information technology could play an important role to help strengthen Pakistan’s feeble economy. The ceremony was part of a two-day software and multimedia competition arranged by the ACM GIKI Chapter.

Stressing the importance of information technology, the governor said that GIKI was a pioneer institute in the private sector that had emerged as an icon of quality in the field of science and technology.

He said the NWFP government had given top priority to education but for achieving encouraging results the community participation was vital.

A contest among students of various universities and institutions was also held as part of the exhibition. First prize worth Rs25,000 was won by the students of Muhammad Ali Jinnah College Lahore for the best software. The second prize worth Rs15,000 went to the students of National University for Science and Technology. Imran Gohar of Government College Lahore won the multi-media competition first prize of Rs10,000, whereas second prize worth Rs7,000 went to Mohammad Ali Raza of GIKI.

The quiz competition prize worth Rs5,000 was won by the students of Lahore University for Management Sciences, and the second prize was grabbed by Sheikh Farrukh of Humdard University. In the ‘speed programming’ competition, Masroor Hussain emerged victorious. The governor awarded prizes to the winners. GIKI Rector Ilahi Bux Soomro, Dean Student Affairs Dr Iqbal Qureshi, and Dean Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering Dr Mehboob Yaseen attended the ceremony.