KARACHI, Dec 2: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan on Saturday said that the government had ensured availability of uplift funds to all public sector varsities in Pakistan through the Higher Education Commission to improve the standards of higher education in the country.

He was talking to newsmen at the inauguration ceremony of the four recently established projects at the NED University of Engineering and Technology.

Dr Ibad said that heavy investment in the education section sector was a manifestation of the government's determination to improve the education sector with the ultimate goal of socio-economic uplift of the population.

Earlier, the governor formally inaugurated the campuses and also sought details of the projects from the NED varsity authorities.

The projects inaugurated included admission centre, students’ facilities centre, laboratories for automotive engineering and high performance computing centre.

The governor also appreciated the performance of the provincial monitoring unit at the Governor's House.

Dr Ibad said that few years back varsities in the country were facing financial constraints and due to the same reason the execution of the uplift projects was almost impossible but now the present economic situation of the country had enabled the government to provide funds for such projects.

He said that provision of various facilities including latest laboratories and equipment would certainly result in significant improvement in the performance of the varsities.

Talking about education projects, Dr Ibad said that total 80 different projects were under way in Sindh. He said that the government was determined to equip varsities with the latest technologies to create awareness among students about new developments in their respective fields.

The Sindh governor also lauded the performance of the NED varsity and said the varsity was one of the leading institutions of higher education in the country. He added that the timely completion of the recently inaugurated projects at the NED varsity was the result of devotion and hard work of the officials concerned.

Speaking on the occasion, the vice-chancellor of the NED varsity, Abdul Kalam, thanked the governor for his cooperation in acquiring development funds for the projects. Dr Ibad was also informed about different other ongoing projects at the university.

The project include establishment of centre for automotive engineering, academic facilities and LEJ campus, new departments and students facilities, strengthening of laboratories of department of electronic engineering and strengthening and expansion of Cowasjee Earthquake Study Centre (CESNED). The total estimated cost of all projects is Rs382 million while Rs379.674 has already been released.—APP