Arfa Karim technology park wins approval

Faisalabad forum wants environmental issues addressed.

FAISALABAD: Faisalabad Research Forum (FRF) meeting chaired by Commissioner Faisalabad, Sardar Akram Jawed on Thursday placed the country’s environmental issues on top priority in face of depleting water and forest resources; increasing pollution, climate changes and waste management challenges confronting the country in general and the city, which is known for industrial activities, in particular.

The meeting approved establishing the environment protection forum to address the issues for the noble cause as well as approved setting up Arfa Karim Technology Park to promote IT industry in the third largest city of the country.

Jawed said that concrete mechanism was required to achieve the targets of production possibility curve by all institutions, and sectors. He said that the country was losing 30-40 percent in post harvest losses that could be tackled by giving awareness and transferring modern techniques among farmers.

He lauded the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) for becoming first-ever university of the country in top 100 universities of the world. He also congratulated the UAF for developing UAF 11 oil seeds crop that produces more oil in less time.

Vice Chancellor UAF, Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that the UAF is providing assistance to the Punjab Government in order to promote the biogas tubewells, as the government has until now distributed 0.1 million worth tubewells among the farmers.

“The country’s largest imports include oil and pulses, promoting its cultivation process can save billions of rupees”, Khan said.

District Coordination Officer Lahore, Noor-ul-Amin said that Rs100 million had been earmarked for the plantation of city to present an aesthetic look, whereas Rs50 million had been allocated for preserving the cultural heritage of the city.

GC University Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zakir Hussain offered to provide sufficient piece of land to establish the Arfa Karim Information Technology Park. He said that the formation of big dams was vital as Pakistan is counted in the list of water scarce country, adding that “Per capita water availability has gone below 1000 cubic meter which is threshold level.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2013.

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