SIALKOT: Provincial Minister for Higher Education Punjab Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz has said the first priority of the Higher Education Department (HED) is to rectify the system of universities.
He was addressing students and teachers at the inaugural ceremony of Government Associate College for Women at Malluchait, near here on Tuesday. He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government was trying to solve problems of over seven decades in just five years, adding that the main responsibility of the Higher Education Department (HED) was to ensure provision of quality education.
The minister said it was a fault of the successive governments that Pakistan could not be built according to the vision of Allama Dr Muhammad Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He said that according to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, education system was moving in the right direction and for the purpose, recruitments were being made on merit through the Public Service Commission.
The provincial minister said the US-style associate degree programmes were being launched in the country. He said that 5, 000 teachers would be recruited and a summary had been sent to the Punjab chief minister for recruitment of more than 2, 000 college teaching interns (CTIs).
The provincial minister said all vice-chancellors had been tasked to improve the ranking of universities by carrying out such programmes which should be appreciated universally.
Yasir Humayun Sarfraz said that in the past three years, the world ranking of Punjab universities had improved 100 per cent. He said now all attention had been focused on improving the college sector.
The minister appreciated the efforts of Special Assistant to the Chief Minister (SACM) on Punjab Board of Investment and Trade Ahsan Saleem Baryar and Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan to ensure the provision of quality educational facilities in in PP-38 constituency, Sialkot.
Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz was an educated, determined, responsible and dutiful minister and his services for promotion of quality education in the province need no introduction. She thanked Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar on whose instructions the college building was completed and handed over to the education department.
Dr Firdous strongly condemned the lynching incident and said Sialkot was the city of Iqbal’s shaheens whose per capita income and literacy was higher than other districts of the country. She said the city had always been a symbol of interfaith harmony.
PTI leader Chaudhry Muhammad Saleem Baryar welcomed the provincial minister for Higher Education Punjab in PP-38 constituency. He said the PTI had made a historic victory in the by-elections from there.
Earlier, Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz inaugurated the Government Degree College for Women.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Revenue Abdul Rauf, Director Colleges Prof Syed Mukhtar, DD Colleges Iqbal Kaloya, Project Director/Principal Government Jinnah Islamia College Mujahid Bukhari, Principal Prof. Tayyaba Kausar, Principal Government Allama Iqbal College for Women, Sialkot Prof. Zeba Zahoor, educationists and students were also present.