PESHAWAR, March 17: American government’s Senior Adviser for Women Empowerment Shirin Tahir Kheli called on University of Peshawar vice-chancellor Prof (Dr) Haroon Rashid and discussed issues in education and research with him.

The two agreed to strengthen academic links between their two countries in order to provide quality education to Pakistani students.

Thanking the US government for establishing the ‘Lincoln Corner’ in the central library of his university, Prof Rashid told the US official that 104,000 students were enrolled with the institution, 24,000 of whom were regular students.

He said that recognising the importance of extra-curricular activities, the Higher Education Commission had asked his university to hold inter-university sports gala for three consecutive years.

Earlier, the US official was briefed by Prof (Dr) Nasir Jamal Khattak about the Human Rights Centre and the Department of Gender Studies. The official was told that the university was planning to enhance the scope of the Human Rights Centre so that it could offer PhD programmes.

University registrar Dr Shakeel Ahmad, Islamic Studies Department chairman Prof (Dr) Mehrajul Islam Zia and US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Tom Schweich were also present.—APP