Zubair assures of resolving public sector universities' issues

The Governor Sindh and Chancellor of Universities in Sindh Muhammad Zubair has said that the public sector universities in Sindh are facing innumerable financial, logistic, land security and students' hostel space constraints, which would be resolved on priority basis; and if need be, the issues would be taken up with Higher Education Commission (HEC) Islamabad and other relevant forums for speedy remedy.
He also extended assurance to personally lead the delegation of vice chancellors to facilitate their interface with the responsible authorities in the federal government, especially HEC authorities so that the genuine concerns of all public sector universities in the province could be redressed in the shortest possible span of time.
He was addressing a laptop distribution ceremony under Prime Minister's Laptop Distribution Scheme held in the Senate Hall, Vice Chancellor's Secretariat, Administration Block, University of Sindh Jamshoro here on Saturday. He said he was well-acquainted with the problems the universities were encountering, and as a part of that cognizance he had come to the educational city of Jamshoro to visit the three largest general, medical and engineering universities to witness firsthand the state of affairs prevailing here.
He said that the award of laptop would greatly facilitate scholars in smooth conduct of research, emphasizing on the recipients to make productive, purposeful and research oriented use of the devices they had received. The governor further said that the universities had always played significant and prominent role in promotion of research all over the globe including Pakistan. He conveyed his compliments to SU vice chancellor Professor Dr Fateh Muhammad Burfat upon having successfully tackled the challenges facing the University of Sindh.
He also expressed the hope that Dr Burfat being a seasoned educationist and a veteran researcher and administrator would soon be able to overcome all odds and elevate the university to the heights of success. He stressed the need for increased focus on the Information Technology in order to bring Pakistan at par with the rest of developing economy in South Asia adding that he was happy and satisfied to see the vice chancellors of Universities in Sindh not only surviving tough conditions but also developing their campuses diligently in the face of ongoing ordeals.
On the occasion, the SU vice chancellor Professor Dr Fateh Muhammad Burfat said they experienced acute shortage of funding as the Sindh Higher Education Commission was still non-functional, whereas, he said the regular recurring and non-recurring budgetary allocations they received from Higher Education Commission, Islamabad were not only far too low as compared to the other provinces, but they were also fallen way too short of our routine requirements resulting in a myriad of problems that very adversely affect functioning of their universities. He requested the governor to take the said issue up with Higher Education Commission, Islamabad through help from the Federal Government, and get them special bailout packages to ease financial strain.