September 28, 2008	Sunday	Ramazan 27, 1429

PESHAWAR, Sept 27: NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani has said that provision of ample opportunities to women folk to acquire higher education is a must to develop a stable society and ensure social wellbeing of the people of the province.

Presiding over a high-level meeting at the Governor House here on Saturday, he said that for achieving this goal we have to fully concentrate on rapid growth of Frontier Women University and construction of its own campus on a fast-track basis.

The meeting was also attended by provincial ministers for, agriculture, higher education, and schools and elementary education, Arbab Mohammad Ayub Jan, Qazi Mohammad Asad Khan, Sardar Hussain Babak and Chief Secretary Sahibzada Riaz Noor, besides other senior authorities of the respective departments.

The governor said, “This institution of vital importance needs immediate attention to resolve the accommodation problem.”

It is worth mentioning that the university is working in a portion of Frontier Girls College, Peshawar where its enrollment has crossed 500 students.

Besides, 240 students have already graduated from the university. It is further pointed out that a piece of 400-kanal land has already been acquired at Larrama, situated along Charsadda Road, Peshawar for establishment of a permanent campus and work on construction of three academic blocks as well as a hostel is already in progress.

Appreciating the performance of the university, despite the constraints, the governor said, the institution was growing with rapid speed and we have to give equal attention to meet its both immediate needs as well as the long-term requirements. He also described the site for establishment of the permanent campus of the university as quite suitable and said that there was a need to prefer construction of high-rise buildings to create scope for sparing maximum space for future development and expansion of the university.Referring to the demand for provision of additional accommodation to meet immediate needs of the university, a committee comprising provincial ministers for higher education and the schools and elementary education as well as the secretaries of the respective departments, to look into the possibilities and suggest suitable measures to resolve the problem.

He, however, assured the management of the university that their intake process would never be left to suffer and all effort would be made to ensure provision of suitable accommodation to accommodate the fresh lots.

Meanwhile, the meeting was briefed about various alternate options and suggestions to provide suitable accommodation facilities to meet the immediate needs of the university.