Federal Minister for Planning and Development assures of funds for QAU needs

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has vowed to provide resources for infrastructure development at Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU). He was addressing a roundtable “QAU 50 Years: Setting the Development Agenda” here on Friday.

The minister said that universities in all over the world are now becoming the engine of development. He urged the academia for relevant research to cater to needs of the society. “The capability to utilize the knowledge will ultimately give the competitive edge to any nation,” he added.

Earlier in his welcome address, Vice-Chancellor QAU Dr Javed Ashraf said that QAU has consistently been ranked the top university in the country by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

In addition, according to the US News and World Report, QAU is the only academic institution in Pakistan among the top 500 universities in the world. However the financial constraint is the main hurdle for QAU towards achieving its desired goals of providing best physical infrastructure and academic standards.

The vice-chancellor also briefed the minister regarding PC-I of proposed PSDP project ‘QAU Expansion Phase II. The proposed project consists of academic blocks, hostels, labs, administration buildings and staff residents. “The university, if gets the proposed project, would cater to the university infrastructure needs even in future,” said the VC. The minister assured that all infrastructure development needs of the university will be fulfilled on priority.