Private sector participation is being actively
encouraged by the government
From SHAMIM AHMED
RIZVI
Islamabad
Jan-14 - 20, 2002
The acting President of Islamic Republic of
Pakistan, Mr. Justice Irshad Hasan Khan has observed that public
sector cannot meet the demand of higher education and therefore the
Private Sector participation in the field of higher education was
being encouraged by the government.
While inaugurating the newly built Islamabad campus
of Preston Institute of Management, Science and Technology in
Islamabad last Friday the acting President said, that education is one
of the most critically important areas of our society, and the
challenge of adequately and properly educating the nation is indeed a
gigantic task. Addressing a distinguished gathering of educationists,
high ranking members of the civil bureaucracy, heads of public and
private sector corporate enterprises, and the management, staff and
faculty of Preston Institute, the acting President Mr. Justice Irshad
Hasan Khan further said that higher education in an area where the
challenges are greater, the resources are limited, and the demand for
resources is extremely high. Everyone is fully aware of this fact that
the public sector alone cannot meet the demand for higher education.
Private sector participation in the field of higher education,
therefore, is not only welcome but is being actively encouraged by the
government.
Talking about the importance of Information
Technology, a field that has taken the entire world by storm, he said
that to earn a respectable place in the comity of nations, Pakistan
would also need to take big strides to make a major breakthrough in
the field of Information Technology to bring the country at the
forefront of this emerging field. The Government of Pakistan, he said
has formulated a revolutionary and comprehensive IT policy and is
pushing through a very extensive agenda of major IT development
programmes and projects.
In this regard, he culogised the role of Preston
Institute, which, he remarked, accepted the challenge and came forward
to contribute in this major nation-building task. He also lauded the
endeavours that Preston is continuing to make towards the cause of
higher education in the country, since the past eighteen years. He
congratulated the management and the Chairman of Preston Institute,
Dr. Abdul Basit on successfully accomplishing the construction of its
own campus in the capital, and expressed the hope that the Institute's
new campus would become a creative and well-known seat of learning in
the country.
Earlier, welcoming the acting President of
Pakistan, Mr. Justice Irshad Hasan Khan, the Chairman of Preston
Institute of Management, Science and Technology, Dr. Abdul Basit gave
a detailed account of the institution from its inception (in 1984) to
date. He said Preston was the first institution of higher learning to
have been established in the private sector in Pakistan. The enviable
stature that Preston has attained today and the reputation it enjoys
in the comity of reputed institutions of higher learning in the
country is due to the untiring efforts of its dedicated management
team and faculty. Highlighting the significance of the institute's
graduate and postgraduate academic programmes in Business
Administration, Information Technology and other fields, he said all
its academic programmes are market-driven which is why its graduates,
on graduating, are readily absorbed by national and international
business and other organizations both within the country and abroad.
Dr. Basit informed that Preston Institute of Management, Science and
Technology is a chartered and recognized Degree Awarding Institute.
The government of Sindh conferred a charter on PIMSAT vide Sindh
Ordinance No. xxvi of 2001 in August last year, and in recognition of
this decision of the Sindh Government the University Grants Commission
(UGC) enlisted the Institute in UGC's consolidated list of
chartered/recognized public and private Universities and Degree
Awarding Institutes of Pakistan, he said.
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