THE people of Pakistan may have forgotten that they once had the best institutions in many a field before the country went through a nationalisation process in the early 1970s. The critical education sector was one of the most notables among them all.

Habib College of Industrial Technology in Nawabshah, inaugurated by Ayub Khan in 1964, used to provide a degree in chemical industrial engineering and had affiliation with foreign universities. Another notable institution was the Dawood College of Engineering, which has since become a university.

The college was regarded among the oldest institutions in the field of engineering learning in the country. Both these institutions had the best professors and the university alumni have served in the best of organisations both in Pakistan and abroad.

Sadly, these institutions have been ruined and now reflect a miserable condition in all their forms. The federal government should diligently look into the matter and denationalise all such institutions.

Moreover, all university and professional colleges should be benchmarked by top-notch professors in Pakistan and foreign professors from the world’s top-ranking universities.

This will help Pakistan elevate the overall standard of these institutions, and, by doing so, we can attract foreign international students. This will also eventually allow us to earn huge revenue.

Jawaid Mannan
Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2021