KARACHI, July 10: The British Council Karachi, which saw ups and downs after 9/11, has finally shifted to its own permanent building within the premises of the British Deputy High Commission in Clifton.

The new building will mainly be used as a facilitation centre for candidates taking different UK exams, education and scholarships and information centre.

The old premises of the council was famous, among other reasons, for its loaded public access library, which was closed down for security concerns raised in the wake of September 11 tragic incident in the USA. There is no room for public access library in the new building and there is also no consideration towards establishment of such a facility in Karachi at the moment, said a communication officer of the British Council, Karachi, on Monday.

The new British Council building was recently declared open at a colourful ceremony, which, among others, was attended by Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro, British Deputy High Commissioner Hamish Daniel, country director of the British Council Sue Beaumont, Director Marcus Gilbert and Regional Director Morna Nance.

At the ceremony, Mr Daniel said that since after his taking over the offices in Pakistan he was anxious about the future of the British Council in Pakistan and that was why started working on the new building project, which now stood completed in two and a half years time.

Other speakers mentioned that 60,000 Pakistani school children had recently completed their Cambridge O and A levels. Over 6,500 students from Pakistan went to study in British varsities last year, and a similar number will be getting ready to travel to the UK to start their studies this September. Academics were of the view that the British Council's projects and programmes helped enhancing the quality of Pakistani education.

Audience were told that the British Council was also working to support the work of the Honour Killing Awareness project chaired by Dr Hamida Khuhro to raise awareness and promote debate about the murders on the pretext of honour.