Sindh to have more engineering, IT colleges

Government to establish more engineering, IT colleges
Khairpur, Sep 29: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said the provincial government would establish more engineering and IT colleges to produce best engineers.

He expressed these views while addressing the foundation-stone-laying ceremony of the Mehran University College of Engineering, Khairpur, on Monday. The chief minister said his government had provided Rs 1 billion for the college.

He said the mission of his government was to produce specialists, engineers and technologists in all fields. "Shaheed Benazir Bhutto was deeply concerned about education and the PPP manifesto accords education top priority".

The government wanted education for all and no compromise would be made on merit in the Education Department, he said, adding efforts were being made to ensure transparency in the department.

Qaim said education was expensive in private institutions as compared with the public sector. Therefore, he rejected a proposal of some officials to hand over public-sector colleges to the private sector.

In educational institutions of the Aga Khan Board, a candidate has to bear expenses of Rs 0.7 million, but in the public institutions these expenses are only Rs 0.15 million, the chief minister said.

He said when the PPP government had established the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology in Nawabshah, many questions were raised at that time, but now it is a well-established institution, producing engineers.

The administrations of the Mehran University, the Quaid-i-Awam University and the NED University were not making compromise on merit, adopting their own independent policies, Qaim said. "Even for the appointment of principal of the Mehran Engineering College, Khairpur, they did not consult with the Sindh government."

He said his government was providing free education from primary to matriculation. " Education up to matriculation is compulsory. So the parents should get their children enrolled in schools." The government, he said, was providing a glass of milk and biscuits to students

Earlier, Sindh Minister for Works and Services Manzoor Hussain Wassan said this college was a gift of the PPP government for the people of Khairpur. He said the total cost of the Mehran Engineering College project was Rs 3.5 billion. He also demanded establishment of a medical college in Khairpur.

Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Vice Chancellor Abdul Qadir Khan, Mehran University College Principal Mujeeb Sehraie and others said the college would produce good engineers.

Earlier, a team of the Mehran Engineering University, Jamshoro, told the chief minister at the DCO Office here that admissions would start from November, adding that four faculties, including civil, petroleum and electrical engineering and natural sciences, would start working.

The team members said the admission policy had been decided by the university and not the Sindh government. They said regular and contractual employment will be offered to people. Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah announced Rs 10 million aid for the Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital in Sukkur on Monday.

He announced the aid while inaugurating the Pakistan Institution of Ophthalmology in the hospital. He also visited the Laser Clinic and the Light House project of the hospital.

Al-Shifa Trust President Gen (retd) Jahandad Khan briefed him on the project and said it was a unique project to treat deafness of the people. He said the hospital was providing training and conducting refresher courses for doctors. The news

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Government has failed to solve problems of college teachers
Hyderabad: The regional administrative council of the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association has criticised the Sindh government and the education department for not taking any steps to solve problems of college teachers.

The council said at a meeting held here on Monday that although the government had accepted several demands of the association but it had still failed to issue a covering notification in this regard.

Despite the fact that a meeting of the departmental promotion committee had been held on March 30, 2009 for grant of promotion to college teachers from grade-17 to 18 but a notification in this regard had not been issued so far, said the meeting.

The meeting pointed out that 1,137 posts of grade-17 to 20 were vacant in different colleges but government had still not issued promotion orders to deserving candidates to fill the posts.

The meeting demanded that the college teachers in Sindh should be given the same facilities as had been given to their counterparts in other provinces.

The meeting called for implementation of time-scale formula for the promotion of college teachers, lifting of ban on transfer of teachers who had passed commission tests, payment of salary to ad hoc lecturers, removal of retired bureaucrats who had been reappointed in the educational institutions and non-attractive allowance for college teachers serving in rural areas.

The regional president of the association Prof Yaqoob Chandio presided over the meeting, which was attended by Prof Himmat Ali Pitafi, Farooq Pathan, Ghazanfar Shah, Anwar Mansoor Mangrio and others.

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SALU VC visited Sachal Sarmast chair
Khairpur: Vice Chancellor, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Prof Dr Nilofar Shaikh visited the Sachal Sarmast Chair on Monday and collected information about the research being conducted on the renowned Sufi poet Sachal Sarmast.

Dr Shaikh announced the establishment of a study-room for the scholars at the chair.

She also visited Rasheed Bhatti and comrade Barkat Ali Azad corners.

Our Larkana correspondent adds: The Chief Minister addressing the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-elected office-bearers of the Larkana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said that the consultation process with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for the admission of students from the interior of Sindh to Karachi's medical colleges was now complete.

He told the journalists that a joint announcement to this effect would be made soon.

"We don't believe in hollow slogans and cheap popularity and the government is showing no reluctance with reference to Article 6 and changes would be brought about in the light of the suggestions and proposals of the constitutional committee headed by Senator Raza Rabbani."

Sindh was ignored during the tenure of General Parvez Musharraf in terms of development and now huge development works with an allocation of Rs75 billion had already begun here, he said.

The government was committed to providing free of cost 10,000 houses to poor and over 50,000 jobs to educated youth in the province.

The federal government was financially assisting 800,000 women of Sindh with a total outlay of Rs70 billion and the provincial administration in the current fiscal was committed to helping another 500,000 females, he said.The government has appointed 1,500 doctors on merit in three months with a bond to work for two years at the place of their first posting besides reviving numerous basic health units, said the CM.

He said that soon lady doctors would be appointed for basic health units and also proposed of sending 50 per cent doctors of Karachi to the villages.

The Chief Minister announced a grant of Rs20 million for the LCCI.

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Ban slapped on nurses using cell phones
Larkana: Chandka Medical College Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Zulfikar Siyal has ordered the staff and student nurses not to carry or use mobile phone during duty hours in the hospital. It was decided at a meeting of all administrative officers of the hospital here on Monday.

Circulating the orders, the MS said that the decision was taken after the nurses defied repeated instructions issued by his office. Dawn

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