KOHAT, June 15: NWFP Governor Khalil-ur-Rehman has stressed the need for achieving the highest degree of professionalism in educational institutions. Addressing a certificate distribution ceremony marking the conclusion of a staff training course at the Kohat University of Science and Technology here on Tuesday, the governor urged the staff and students of the university to derive maximum benefit from the opportunities and facilities provided by the Higher Education Commission.

The governor, who also performed the foundation-stone laying ceremony of a girls’ hostel at the university, said that the present government firmly believed in equal opportunities and status for women in society.

The governor asked the vice chancellor of the university to promote research in every faculty so that Pakistanis should also contribute in inventions in science and technology which were mostly being done in the West.

He said that research should be NWFP-specific so that local people could get benefit from it.

Mr Khalil-ur-Rehman quoted the success of communal farming programme that had been launched in the Kurram Agency two years back where 7,000 acres of barren land had been brought under cultivation with the help of cheap electricity produced by windmills. Mr Zabita Khan, vice-chancellor of the university, briefed the governor on the progress the university had made in the last three years and on future plans for the institution.

Mr Khan said the university would spend one billion rupees in the next few years for sending its faculty abroad for doing PhD.

The vice-chancellor elaborated that more than 50 per cent teachers would be sent abroad for higher education while Rs250 million had been set aside for the master’s programme to overcome the shortage of human resources in various fields.