31 October 2004	Sunday	16 Ramazan 1425

PESHAWAR, Oct 30: The NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has said that the environment of the universities should be made free of political and ethnic differences. He advised the university authorities to handle such elements which created agitation in the educational institutions.

Speaking at convocation 2003 of the Peshawar University at its Convocation Hall on Saturday, Mr Iftikhar said that our ability to survive as a nation depended upon our responses to the modern day challenges and let these responses be based on reason, logic and knowledge rather than on bigotry or emotionalism.

He said the stunted growth of educational infrastructure of schools, colleges and universities had resulted in creating social vacuum, which, he added, had given way to the forces of extremism. These factors had emerged as a real danger that threatened our social fabric.

Besides a large number of educationists, parents and out-going graduates of various disciplines, the convocation was also attended by Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk. More than 400 students got degrees which included Ph.D and M.Phil degrees and 26 graduates were awarded gold medals for their outstanding performance.

He said our country was one of the lowest in terms of human development resources due to which we had limited choices. In fact, the human resource factor had got the most important position among all the available resources essentially required for development of the country. Only those had progressed who had invested in human resources.

As for the job opportunities, he said, the youth should realize that in line with the existing trend the world over, the public sector employment was shrinking. The policy of the government, he added, was also aimed at deregulate and privatize public sector.

In fact dynamism and efficiency of private sector vis-a-vis public sector would certainly generate more job opportunities and also recharge our national efforts for a developed and economically stable Pakistan.

Therefore, he added, we also need to rethink and integrate our higher educational system with the newly evolving market forces and the educational activities must not remain limited to university campuses alone.

Talking about the efforts being made by the government for the promotion of higher education, he said that in the recent past a large number of universities with modern disciplines had emerged throughout the country. In the NWFP, though the number of higher seats of learning had almost been doubled, the Peshawar University being the mother institution enjoyed special status and prestige among the people of this region.

Keeping in view the importance of higher education, the governor said, the federal government had initiated a series of reforms and policies to fully prepare our country men for the challenges that would come in our way.

He said that about Rs three billion had been earmarked for the development of the infrastructure in the universities. However, he said that meaningful benefits would accrue only if the faculty and students created an environment free from ethnic and political influences and which were conducive for learning.

Mr Iftikhar said that in the past universities had been forced to launch self-finance schemes to meet their financial constraints. This was blatant negation of merit and to correct this aberration, the scheme had been abolished from the public sector universities so that access to education was based on merit than on pecuniary considerations. The federal government would compensate the public sector universities for their financial loss where the self-finance scheme was abolished.

Pointing towards the out-going graduates, he stressed them to get ready for a more arduous path which lies ahead of them. Their studies at the university, he added, were primarily meant to prepare them for the challenging tasks that they would face in professional life. We do not require robots rather we would like see our youth with the qualities of head and heart.

Earlier, Mr Shah gave away degrees and awards. Iffat Bibi, Miss Marjana, Syed Imran Shah, Muhammad Tahir, Sakina Bibi, Abdan Yousaf, Saima Aman, Sofia Naurin, Mohammad Hanif, Hashmat Begum, Mehwash Jalil, Qaisar Nawaz, Mohammad Tariq, S.M. Hussain Shah, Shandana Mirza, Maarajuddin, Naila Aini, Bushra Simin, Rabia Gul, Chand Gul, Rabia Jalal, Gul Afshan, Nadia Shabir, Fasih-ud- Din, Shafaq Salam and Ehsanullah received gold medals for getting distinctions in their respective disciplines.

Mumtaz Gul, the Vice Chancellor of the University while welcoming the guests on this occasion said that though the University of Peshawar was facing shortage of land for houses of faculty and student hostels, still two new academic blocks had been constructed with the capacity to house 28 new departments and after which the intake strength of the university would be almost double.

Similarly, he said, a video conferencing hall to accommodate 300 students was being established, apart from providing internet facility on vast level. Moreover, he said that an information technology based library was also being established.

He said that though the university faced financial constraints due to abolition of self-finance scheme, the morning and evening shifts with same fee structures were providing quality education.

The FM radio of the university, he said, was also working efficiently. Almost 500 scholars, he said, had registered themselves for higher studies as well.