KARACHI, July 2: The process of admission to 15 polytechnic and mono-technic institutes in the city would begin from August 1, said an official of the City District Government Karachi.

As many as 1,720 seats were being offered in the morning programme, and 1,600 seats in the evening. Admission forms would be available from respective colleges.

The official said two mono-technic institutes, one each at Malir and Orangi, and one polytechnic institute for women at Lyari would start functioning from the new academic session. Admissions would be offered at these institutes as well.

It was learnt that the city nazim, Naimatullah Khan, has already approved the admission policy for mono- and poly-technical institutes for the new session. Under the policy, all admissions would be given on merit basis, and all kinds of quota seats had been abolished.

It was also learnt that the new policy in the whole was similar to that of last year's. To ensure transparency in the admission process, the city government had also constituted a committee comprising EDO (Higher Education) Prof Raees Alvi, Advisor to city nazim on Education, Nasim Siddiqui and District Officer (Technical Education) Masroor Ahmed.

In the meantime, the city government also constituted a 23 member-admission committee with regard to admission to first year classes at city colleges for session 2004-05. The Centralised Admission Committee comprises some college principals, members of city council, while EDO (Higher Education) Prof Raees Alvi is its chairman.

According to a city government notification, the Centralized Admission Committee would include: Prof M Raees Alvi, chairman, Nasim Siddiqui, representative of city nazim, DO (Colleges) Prof Asghar Khan, secretary, Mansoob Siddiqui, Azher Naqvi, Prof Zaheer Ahmad, Prof Tanveer Anjum, Prof Aslam Khan, Prof Kafeel Ahmad, Prof AneesZaidi, Prof Naeemuddin, ProfRiaz Ahsan, Prof Razia Zafar, Prof Mudassir Qureshi, Prof Manzoor Chisti, Prof Nasim Imam, Prof Farkhunda Hussain, Fakhar Karim Siddiqui, Rehana Afroze (City Council), Shamim Mumtaz Wasti (City Council), Saifuddin (City Council), Tauseef Ahmad Khan (City Council) and Muhammad Afzal (EDO Office).

Admissions would be given under a computerized central system, for which a temporary office would be set up at PECHS College for Women.