PESHAWAR, June 1: Chairman of Higher Education Commission Prof Dr Attaur Rehman said the government was likely to give special consideration to universities in the public sector in the NWFP. During a meeting at the Governor’s House here on Tuesday, Prof Attaur Rehman said that almost 50 per cent increase in expenditure of the universities was being anticipated.

The meeting was attended by NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman and vice-chancellors of all the public sector universities of the province.

Prof Attaur Rehman said allocations to the universities would also be closely linked to their success or failure in implementing the ongoing projects.

He said that the HEC had been focusing on making higher education accessible to the youth, to improve its quality and to develop the examination system on modern lines, said a handout issued here on Tuesday.

The HEC was working to promote university education, to expand facilities on the campuses and to open new universities as well, Prof Attaur Rehman said.

Stressing the need for quality in higher education, he said it was better to have no university at all than to have one that lacked quality.

Prof Attaur Rehman said the government had sent 450 students abroad for higher education, and 250 educationists and researchers who had been working abroad had returned to the country.

The chairman of the HEC said that research that could help the NWFP tap its natural resources would be given priority.

The geology department of the University of Peshawar could produce professionals who could exploit oil and gas reserves in the province, he said.

The HEC was already funding a large number of research projects throughout the country, he said.

Almost 60 universities in the country had been linked with fibre and satellite facilities enabling students to access almost 70,000 journals and libraries of international repute, the chairman of the HEC said.

The NWFP Governor, Khalilur Rehman, urged the participants of the meeting to upgrade the higher education system.

PPI Adds: A meeting of the Standing Committee on Zakat, Ushr, social welfare and women development was held under the chairmanship of MPA Qari Mohammad Abdullah at the conference room of the NWFP Assembly secretariat on Wednesday.

The participants were briefed about the work so far done in the women development sector and it was decided that another meeting with one-point agenda of ‘women development sector’ would be convened to devise better strategy for women uplift.