CHAKWAL: Punjab Minister for Higher Education and Tourism Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz said a modern university would be built in every division of the province under the PTI government.

Addressing the annual ceremony of Chakwal Chamber of Commerce on Saturday evening, Raja Yasir regretted that not a single university of Pakistan was included in the list of world’s leading varsities.

“Our goal is to build a modern university in every district but in the first phase we would try our best to build a modern university in every division. We would also try our best that at least seven to eight universities of the country are listed among the top 100 universities of the world,” he said.

Punjab has 36 districts and 10 divisions which mean the PTI-led provincial government is going to build 10 new universities in the province.

Mr Yasir said a plan had been chalked out by his ministry regarding the public sector colleges.

“The public sector colleges are facing numerous problems as the previous government did not pay any heed to fix their issues. The colleges are being run without required faculty members,” he said and added that all public sector colleges would be made model colleges.

Lashing out at the cosmetic steps taken by former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, Mr Yasir said Rs20 billion were frittered away on the useless scheme of distributing free of cost laptops among students.

“At least four modern universities could have been constructed at such a hefty amount,” he said, adding a student did not need any laptop if the computer labs of educational institutions are well equipped.

“I have been a student of computer science in the United States where I never felt the need to have my own computer as the computer lab of the university was enough to meet the needs of the students.”

He said one of the manifesto points of the PTI was to end the dual system of education in the country.

Criticising those who are lampooning Imran Khan’s appeal for donations for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha Dam, the minister said the concept of crowdfunding was not a new one.

Qazi Mohammad Akbar, the founder of the Chakwal chamber of commerce, highlighted the problems being faced by businessmen.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2018