MULTAN, July 23: COMSAT Institute of Information Technology will start working here from September 1. This was announced by Punjab Agricultural Marketing Minister Rana Qasim Noon at a press conference here on Friday.

District Nazim Riaz Husain Qureshi and project director of COMSAT Multan campus Sardar Nasir Jamal were also present on the occasion.

The minister said the district government had allocated 27 acres of land on Mattital Road for the COMSAT institute while the federal government had earmarked Rs240 million for building of the institute's campus.

He said besides IT, the institute would introduce disciplines of electrical, mechanical and textile engineering initially at the BSc level and then gradually to MSc and PhD level. He said President Gen Musharraf was the patron-in-chief of the COMSAT institute while Science and Technology Minister Dr Ataur Rehman was its chancellor.

Nazim Riaz Qureshi said the district government would encourage the investment in the higher education sector. He said a women university would soon be established here.

COMSAT's Nasir Jamal said the Multan campus would be sixth of the institute in the country. Earlier, the COMSAT had its campuses at Islamabad, Lahore, Attock, Abbottabad and Wah.

He said the Multan campus would be housed in the building of former directorate of colleges on Bosan Road for two years till the completion of its own building on the land donated by the district government.