Innovation: ‘Allocate resources for research’

Dr Attaur Rehman calls on govt to allocate more resources to science, technology, research, innovation.

LAHORE:

Former Higher Education Commission chairman Dr Attaur Rehman on Tuesday called on the government to allocate more resources to science, technology, research and innovation.

He was addressing a symposium on Bioequivalence and Bio-availability Studies organised by Centre for Bio-equivalence Studies and Bioassay Research, International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences University of Karachi at Al Raazi Hall.

Rehman said the world was rapidly changing and there were thousands of inventions and innovations happening across the globe.

He said investment in research was imperative for development.

“We need to put our country back on the road to progress by investing in research,” he said.

He appealed to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to play his role in improving the education sector.

He said education standards in the Punjab had improved and it was time that expertise was shared with other provinces for national development.

Rehman said the government had promised to allocate at least four per cent of the GDP to education.

He said confusion arose after the 18th Amendment on whether the higher education would also be decentralised.

He said the Supreme Court protected the HEC in its judgment on a petition he had filed.

He said if a province set up a provincial higher education commission, parallel to the federal HEC, it would be a contempt of court.

However, to a question, he said if a province wanted to fund and support institutions of higher learning and wanted to set up a body that did not challenge the functions of the federal HEC, it should be welcomed.

International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences University of Karachi Director Dr Muhammad Iqbal Chaudhry said, “We have yet to discover treatment of so many diseases. The industry and academia must join hands for this.”

He said research in biology would help the country cope with many diseases and epidemics and for that, research was imperative.

Punjab University Vice Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran presided over the session.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2014.