PESHAWAR, March 27: The NWFP government has established eight information technology universities in as many months with a view to promoting IT in the province.

This was stated by the chairman of the Information Technology Board, Dr Lutfullah Kakakhel, at a three-day IT exhibition at university’s Puta Hall here on Wednesday.

The exhibition has been arranged by the Iqra University in collaboration with the IT Board.

“Such useful events are required not only in Peshawar but also in remote districts of the province to raise awareness among people about the importance of the information technology,” said Dr Kakakhel. According to him, the government has received a Rs60 million grant to generate activities in the IT sector by carrying out some useful projects. The government, he said, was concentrating on human resource development. He advised the organizers to bring the secondary school students to the event to enable them to get awareness about computer science.

Asma Ibrahim, event manager of Iqra University, expressed concern over lack of computer science-related activities in the province. People in the NWFP, she said, lagged behind the people of other provinces in computer science knowledge and added that vigorous endeavours were needed to involve community in the sector.

More than two dozens stalls arranged by different computer firms and advertising agencies, attracted visitors. Varsity students who showed keen interest in stalls formed bulk of the visitors. Students had also the opportunity to purchase CDs and other stuffs on discounted prices.

The stall set up by a newspaper organization drew many people because of the discounted subscription it was offering to the visitors. Many subscribed to its publications.

A young person who manned the stall set up by Iqra University, said they had developed a software that can help manage a parking lot. According to him, they had also developed a system of traffic signals, which was more informative for the general public. The exhibition would continue till March 29.