ISLAMABAD, March 20: Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari has said the federal government, in consultation with the provincial governments, will establish campuses of Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) in different cities.

The minister visited the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (Comsats) here on Thursday.

He said as a first step the Punjab government would establish IT campuses at DG Khan, Gujrat and Attock. The venue for campuses in other provinces was being finalized in consultation with the respective chief ministers of the province.

During his visit, the minister was briefed on the CIIT’s four-year bachelors programme in computational mathematics. The institute has also established four fully furnished campuses in the country one each at Islamabad, Abbotabad, Wah and Lahore with enrolment of around 5,000 students.

He was informed that different bachelors, masters and research programmes in management sciences were underway, besides a PhD programme had also been initiated at CIIT, Islamabad, and Abbottabad.

The CIIT has implemented a number of human resource development projects in the country, wherein nearly 25,000 personnel have been trained in IT discipline who were performing in different sectors of the country.

The minister said financial support to the CIIT would be provided through the Higher Education Commission (HEC) besides his ministry would provide all possible assistance for coordination in this matter.