ISLAMABAD, Jan 3: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has approved 11 projects in the third meeting of the Departmental Developmental Working Party (DDWP), an official statement said.

A meeting was held on Friday which was presided over by Dr S.M. Hassan, executive director of the HEC, in which all the projects were discussed in detail.

The projects approved by the DDWP were establishment of department of food sciences and technology in the University of Karachi at a cost of Rs20 million; upgradation of the department of computer sciences as institute of information technology, University of Peshawar; establishment of centre for information technology, University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi, at a cost of Rs27.9 million; Multimedia Electronic Courseware Design Centre, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad at a cost of Rs39.639 million; National University of Engineering and Technology (NUET) Lahore; Phase-1, establishment of Comsats Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad; Institute of Information Technology campus at Lahore at the cost of Rs36.570 million.

The projects also included capacity building at CIIT Abbottabad; scheme for establishment of internet infrastructure for internal internet service at Mehran University of Engg and Tech, Jamshoro, at a cost of Rs34.4 million; talent farming scheme at the HEC at the cost of Rs30 million; setting up of High Tech of Central Resource Laboratory at Gomal University, D.I. Khan with the capital cost of Rs39.8 million; setting up of Earthquake Engineering Centre in the NWFP University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar and strengthening of lab in molecular genetics and engineering, and environmental biology at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

The commission has also decided to pursue the development of social sciences and humanities disciplines simultaneously with the science and technology subjects.

For this purpose, a high-level body has been formed under the chairmanship of Dr Manzoor Ahmed, an eminent social scientist and former vice-chancellor of the University of Karachi, to look into the entire affairs of the HEC regarding social sciences and humanities.

The HEC chairman, Dr Attaur Rehman, ensured that all matters concerning social sciences and humanities would be equally dealt on the par with natural sciences. The HEC was determined to deal with all the disciplines being taught at the university and institutes of higher learning without discrimination.

It also added that a number of projects, schemes and programmes had been formulized at the HEC to enhance research and development in the areas of social sciences and humanities and considered and approved to promulgate at the universities and institutes of higher learning.