LAHORE: Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Mujahid Kamran has said the Muslims are paying high cost of ignorance and lack of knowledge.

Addressing a conference titled “International Conference on Research in Education” organised by Institute of Education and Research on Tuesday, Dr Kamran said in the recent Afghan war, around 4.9 million Afghans had been killed out of which 1.2m fell victim to bombings and the remaining died of diseases and lack of medicines. He said 2.7m people were killed in the Iraq war. “Both wars were imposed on the basis of false pretext.”

Talking about education affairs in the country, he said the successive governments did not pay proper attention to education.

“Focusing on education is a matter of understanding for both the leadership and the people,” he said, adding America’s GDP was around $17 trillion and it used to spend two to three per cent and $340bn to $510bn on research and development per year while Pakistan has a GDP of around $250bn and it was spending only 0.2pc.

He urged the government to allocate sufficient amount in the budget for educatio.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015