KARACHI, Sept 10: Minister for Science and Technology Dr Attaur Rehman said on Monday that the ordinance and charter for Urdu University would be issued before the installation of the next government after the October elections.

Speaking at a function organized by the Anjuman Taraqi-i-Urdu Pakistan to appreciate the role played by the minister in the establishment of the Urdu University, Dr Rehman disclosed that the university would be headquartered in Islamabad in a building provided by the National Language Authority.

“Under the law, a federal university could not be headquartered in a province. This problem has also been removed and the headquarters of the Urdu University would be set up in the building provided by the National Language Authority.”

He said soon four new digital TV channels for education would start functioning. “In addition, the government is launching a satellite which would also be used to educate people.”

The minister remarked that the importance that this government attached to the education sector could be gauged by the fact that it had raised the budget for education from Rs120 million to Rs7 billion. He added that the budget for education had been increased by almost 5,000 per cent.

He said that our students had been facing problems in obtaining scholarships to the United States after the Sept 11 tragedy. “It is ironical that on one hand we are the allies of the West in its war against terrorism and, on the other, our students are being denied opportunities to get education abroad.” He underlined the need for upgrading the country’s education sector.

He recalled that almost two and a half years ago only 29 cities had access to the Internet. “Now 850 cities and villages have access to the Internet. In this area we have outdone even India whose 230 cities are connected with the Internet.”

The honorary secretary of Anjuman Taraqi-i-Urdu Pakistan, Jamiluddin Aali, said Maulvi Abdul Haq had instructed him to carry out two of his ambitions. “First, get Qadam rao, padam rao musnavi scanned. Second, get the presidents of Anjuman Taraqi-i-Urdu Pakistan to establish the Urdu University.”

Mr Aali spoke about the contribution of past presidents of the Anjuman — Akhtar Hussain, Qudratullah Shahab and Nurul Hasan Jafri — towards the cause of the Urdu language. He observed that the greatest opposition to the language in the country had been put up by the English-loving bureaucracy.

The honorary president of the Anjuman, Dr Aftab Ahmed Khan, said there were six Urdu universities in India despite the fact that the language had been bitterly opposed by some sections of the population in the country. He said he hoped that soon relevant legislation would be done about the Urdu University.

The president of the Baba-i-Urdu Foundation, S.H. Hashmi, and the president of the Bab-ul-Islam Educational Society, Prof Azfar Rizvi, also spoke on the occasion.