Profile Zia-ul-Haq Khwaja

Profile Zia-ul-Haq Khwaja Column For The Record Politics & Policy Pakistan - India summit Special Report Understanding WTO framework

By AMANULLAH BASHAR
July 23 - 29, 2001

Zia-ul-Haq-Khwaja, has recently joined the Institute of Textile Technology and Management (ITTM) as its Administrator. Before joining ITTM, Khwaja carried working experience as the Coordinator at Dadabhoy Institute of Management Sciences (DIMS) and Iqra University. Ziaul Haq Khwaja is a graduate in Marketing from Baharia College.

Being the administrator at DIMS and ITTM Khwaja has a close association with much talked about Badr Operations, an IT education programme for producing JAVA programmers. Currently, Badr Operations programme is being carried out both at DIMS and ITTM.

PAGE: Being closely associated with Badr Operations, do you think that the large number of students, being taught JAVA at about 6-7 academic institutes all over the city, would succeed in getting jobs when they complete their Java courses. It is generally said that rapid changes are taking place in the IT sector globally, what would be the use of spending time, money and efforts by the students if they find new technology has replaced the Java or other IT languages which are in fashion today?

Zia-ul-Haq Khwaja: To some extent it is right that IT is the sector where changes take place too fast, yet the existing or old techniques cannot be described as obsolete. In fact the existing IT knowledge whether it is Java, C++ or any other discipline provides support to the students to keep pace with the changes. Java programme launched under the aegis of Badr Operations is not the short course of the subject, it is a comprehensive IT education programme which is certified by SUN in the United States, hence a certified Java programmer would always find a place for himself both at home and abroad.

PAGE: How the market will accommodate such a large number of Java programmers keeping in view the limited job opportunities in Pakistan.

Zia-ul-Haq: The actual situation is quite different from what you are thinking. In fact the Badr Operations being carried out at 6-7 universities in Karachi is mainly run by the students qualified by Badr Operations. There is an acute shortage of qualified teachers especially for imparting Java language. Hence the outstanding students out of the current batches are picked up as the teachers and they are being paid handsomely. While the majority of the qualified students easily find a place for themselves in the market.

PAGE: You are working as administrator at ITTM what this institute is doing in the textile sector?

Zia-ul-Haq: ITTM is the only textile institute, which is located right in the heart of textile mills at SITE industrial area. The ideally located institutes have an advantage to send the students to the adjacent textile mills for on job training. The management of the textile mills generally welcomes the students and offer better opportunities to learn practically. The institute is producing 200-250 textile graduates annually and majority of them is offered jobs while they are still doing graduation. This indicates that Pakistan despite having a strong textile industrial base facing an acute shortage of the skilled workers. The ITTM aims to assist the textile industry by increasing skilled labor and management productivity through appropriate training of human resources and also to train those who intend to serve the textile industry.

PAGE: Would you like to give a brief about the ITTM.

Zia-ul-Haq: The government of Pakistan appreciating the idea of skill development programmes of various places in the country decided to provide financial assistance to those textile associations and organizations that showed interest in promoting textile education by establishing textile training institutes equipped with modern and latest machinery. In the wake of this spirit, Pakistan Silk and Rayon Mills Association came forward to accept the challenge and established ITTM for teaching textile technology. Thus with the assistance of Export Promotion Bureau, and the financial resources of Pakistan Silk and Rayon Mills Association this institute was established in 1996. This institute is committed to provide quality professional education at low cost to all segments of our social structure especially the middle class youths. The ITTM aims to help the industry in deepening the knowledge of the management with regard to production requirements and maintaining quality control and to create awareness for introducing the latest technology in textile industry. ITTM also has a programme to increase Computer literacy and expand computer education to combat the need for more computer personnel. It desires to provide infrastructure for furthering and strengthening the standard of education and training covering all aspects of textile education. ITTM has a programme to arrange and develop testing and research facilities pertaining to every sector of textile and to escalate textile education to the level of Bachelor and Master degree in all customer and traditional branches of Textile, Management and Information Technology.