ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: A world class engineering university will be set up either in Sialkot or Faisalabad in near future, said Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman.

“In this regard, the HEC is negotiating with Sweden and both parities have agreed in principle to set up an engineering university in Pakistan,” Dr Atta said while talking to the participants of “First International Conference on Contemporary American Literature” at the National University of Modern Languages (Numl) here on Thursday.

The planned university will cater to the educational needs in various engineering disciplines of five to six thousand students, he said.

The commission is also in contact with Germany, Austria and France to set up higher education institutions in the country, he said.

The chairman asked US ambassador Dr Ryan C Crocker, who was also present on the occasion, to help set up a university in Pakistan to impart education in social sciences with his government’s assistance.

Dr Ata acknowledged the US assistance in operationalizing a digital library in the country, which offered direct linkage to 17,000 latest scientific journals.

“At present, students of higher learning institutions in the country can download whatever information they want through the digital library, which is a great help for research students,” he said.

Collaboration is already going on between a number of Pakistani and American universities, and the commission is in process to increase this trend in coming years, Dr Ata said.

He congratulated Numl for organizing first international conference on American literature and hoped that other universities would follow suit.

Speaking on the occasion, the US ambassador said literature was a powerful medium which could help people of various regions understand each other in a better way.

In the present age of communications, “we should not forget the importance of language of literature in international relations”, the ambassador said.

Optimism had always been at the core of the American literature, he said.

In his welcoming remarks, Numl Rector Brig (retired) Dr Aziz Ahmad Khan talked about the conference and thanked the education ministry and the HEC for assisting the university in this regard.