RAWALPINDI, Feb 24: Four new degree colleges for girls will be established in the slum areas of the city, the federal information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, said on Monday.
He was speaking at the oath-taking ceremony of the students council of the Postgraduate College for Women, Sixth Road.
The minister said this would help provide educational facilities to the people of the poor localities, who could neither send their daughters to distant places nor afford private institutions.
The colleges will be set up at Dhoke Kala Khan, Afandi Colony, Janda Chichi and Gawalmandi. The buildings of these colleges are under construction and would soon be ready.
Mr Ahmad said Rawalpindi would be made a seat of learning. He underlined the need for girls’ education, saying it was necessary to promote literacy ratio and for the progress and development of the country.
“If the mothers of a nation are educated, it will never face defeat,” he quoted a philosopher.
Buildings for the new colleges have been constructed in a record time of two months, Mr Ahmad said. It takes years to get funds released, he said. Even a map is not prepared in two months, he added.
Apart from this, the minister said, a high-tech university would also be established in Rawalpindi. He said a building near Liaquat Bagh would be used for this purpose.
The building constructed in our previous government was occupied by the Customs department, but it has been vacated by them, he added.
He praised the Sixth Road college for having a distinctive position in the province in respect of studies and extra- curricular activities. He appreciated the performance of the college and said its students were not only the respect but also the future of the city. He promised that every problem of the students would be solved on priority basis.
“It is my wish that each and every girl in the city is at least a graduate,” he added.
Earlier, in her welcoming remarks, the college principal, Prof Khalida Samar, congratulated the outgoing proctors and those who took charge for the coming session.
She stressed on the students to take active part in extra-curricular activities which, she added, were necessary for their physical and mental growth.
It is the students who make a college beautiful, attractive and colourful, she added.
“Life is the name of continuing change, new experiments and struggle. Only those nations are prosperous today that possess these characteristics. Man gets only what he struggles for, and this is the way through which we can reach our destination,” Ms Samar said.
The principal hoped that the new proctorial board would perform its responsibilities in the best possible way and translate the oath they took into practice.
“You will have to practically prove what you verbally promised in your oath,” she added.
Earlier, the federal minister administered oath to the new members of the proctorial board. The new proctors are Aroosa Khurshid, chief proctor; Sobia Afzal, vice chief proctor; Anjum Zahra, vice chief proctor for BSc, Harim Javed, proctor for third year and Hira Riaz, proctor for first year.
OUR REPORTER ADDS: The information minister said he was willing to serve as a bridge between the newspaper owners and employees for the implementation of the Seventh Wage Board Award.
Talking to reporters at the Rawalpindi Press Club, Mr Ahmad said the government would welcome positive criticism from the press.
He attributed Saturday’s terrorist attack on an Imambargah in Karachi to the failure of law enforcement agencies. He also dispelled the impression that there was any Shia-Sunni disharmony and added that anti-Pakistan forces wanted to tarnish the country’s image.
He termed the Kohat air crash as a national debacle and appealed to the countrymen not to think of the issue more than an accident.
He expressed concern over the crash of an aeroplane near Karachi on Monday and expressed condolence to the bereaved families of the eight victims.
He said the results of the new Gulf war could be even more dangerous for the US as compared to Iraq. He observed that the government was aware of the feelings of the masses. He said the Iraq issue would be discussed in the upcoming session of the National Assembly.