Fourth symposium on 'Engineering Sciences' held at PU ICET

Punjab University Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran has stated that Pakistan will have to become super power of knowledge for its survival. He was addressing the participants of 4th symposium on "Engineering Sciences" at PU Institute of Chemical Engineering & Technology (ICET) here on Tuesday.
Dean Faculty of Engineering & Technology Professor Dr Javed Ahmad, Director ICET Professor Dr Zahoor-ul-Hassan Rizvi, Chief Organiser Professor Dr Mahmood Saleem, faculty members and a large number of participants were present on the occasion. Renowned atomic scientist Dr Samar Mubarakmand's message was read on the occasion, who could not participate due to some unavoidable circumstances.
Dr Mujahid Kamran said the country's statistics in terms of budget allocation for education and research is very discouraging. Pakistan attained the status of nuclear power due to efforts of Dr Abdul Qadir Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and due to the continuation of nuclear power programme by successive governments.
He said it was regrettable Muslim countries had no contribution to the latest discoveries in educational sphere, and Pakistan stood after Turkey, Iran, Egypt and Malaysia in the current research scenario among the Muslim countries. He said our governments had to take education on top priority for educational and national advancement. He said there was no lack of funds if education had been given its due preference with strong commitment, as the PU administration increased its budget from Rs 4 million to Rs 70 million for research, which helped promote research culture and as a result the University improved its ranking.
In his message, Dr Samar Mubarakmand said chemical engineering & technology were the leading domains responsible for the advancement of economic growth of any nation. He said in Pakistan, we were striving to improve the economy by exploiting the tremendous wealth of the country, which was embedded in its large resources of coal, copper, gold, chromium and other metals. The nation was very lucky to possess highly educated and trained manpower, which could be diverted towards exploration of our natural resources for the betterment of the country's economy.
Dr Mubarakmand said whether it was the gasification of coal or the extraction of valuable metals from Ore, chemical engineering & metallurgy played the leading role. He expected the symposium would promote the exchange of latest ideas in chemical processing and metallurgical refinement techniques among the participants. He said our country badly needed a contribution from the engineers and scientists to develop and refine the processes for conversion of coal gas to diesel and the separation of copper, gold, silver and cobalt from Ore through efficient means.
The ultimate objective of this development effort should be to design and construct commercial plants later on with the help of the industry. Director ICET Dr Zahoor-ul-Hassan, in his opening remarks, said the objective of the symposium was to create awareness among students about the latest research in the fields of chemical sciences and develop a bond among the research groups.