KARACHI, Dec 23: Noted nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan on Saturday underlined the need to set up quality educational institutions for science and technology to make the country developed and progressed.

Speaking as the chief guest at an annual dinner of Pakistan Engineering Council, on the occasion of its silver jubilee celebrations on the Frere Hall lawns, Dr Khan, who is Special Adviser to the President on Strategic Programme and KRL Affairs, said the nations made progress through quality education.

He regretted that education standards in government-run educational institutions had deteriorated with the passage of time. He recalled his education period in D. J. Science College and said he recently visited the college and was disappointed to see the facilities in the laboratories for science students.

Dr Khan said that after his retirement, he had been working for setting up many quality educational institutions. The Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Institute in the city was being set up on a self- help basis, which would provide excellent engineering education to the students of the country, particularly students of Karachi, he added.

The institute was expected to be completed by next March and start working in June, he added.

Dr Khan pointed out that he had been instrumental in setting up the Institute of Behavioural Sciences in Karachi and the GIK Institute of Science and Technology in the NWFP.

Moreover, he said he made efforts to set up a polytechnic institute in Kahuta and another in Mianwali, which were being successfully working.

He said in all his endeavours people had always supported him. He said that people of the country had given him love for his efforts in making Pakistan a nuclear country.

He said, in the recent past he had been involved in works like making laws for intellectual property rights, revamping of curriculum and making standards for institutions and giving them proper names.

He said the secrete of his success was his consistency to complete the project in hand at all costs.

The nuclear scientist recalled his early days spent in Karachi and said Karachi had made him what he is and he owed a lot to the city. He said every ruler in the past provided full support to nuclear programme of the country and that was why he was able to test it in 1998.

Dr Khan said if the PC-1 system for approval of government projects was abolished, the projects could be completed in a shorter period and at a lesser cost.—APP