Education and networking is on the mind of every MPA at the Sindh Assembly. After spending months debating over setting up more universities in Hyderabad, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government finally appeased its former coalition partner - the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) - by passing three bills to establish private universities in Hyderabad, Karachi and Shaheed Benazirabad.
The universities which are going to be named after the MQM's Altaf Hussain and PPP's Benazir Bhutto will be built by Bahria Town.
The universities, it is said, will be a corporate body and the Begum Akhtar Rukhsana Memorial Welfare Trust, a trust named after the mother of Bahria Foundation's founding chairperson Malik Riaz, will manage their affairs.
MQM MPAs Sardar Ahmed and Khwaja Izharul Hassan moved the bills for setting up universities named after their party leader in Karachi and Hyderabad while PPP MPA Ghulam Qadir Chandio moved a bill to name the university in Shaheed Benazirabad after former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. At the time of legislation, several members of the opposition belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) walked out, leaving PML-F's MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi behind.
While presenting the bill for the Altaf Hussain University in Karachi, Hasan said that the students will benefit from this as the university will also provide them with scholarships, fellowships and internships.
According to the bills, the admission policy will be prescribed by the trust, which will also appoint all officials, including, the chancellor, vice-chancellor, provost, deans, directors, registrars, controller examinations and librarians.
Around fifteen faculties were mentioned in the bills which include - the faculty of science, health and media sciences, engineering and textile, information technology, arts, agriculture, veterinary medicine, management sciences, law, pharmacy, fashion, economics, humanities and social sciences, mass communication and alternative energy. The faculty of medicine shall be established as per the requirements of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council. Sardar Ahmed moved the second bill about establishing an Altaf Hussain University in Hyderabad. He said that it was time to give the people of Hyderabad a university as the city, which is the second largest in Sindh, did not have a varsity of its own since 1963 when the Sindh University was moved to Jamshoro.
PPP's Ghulam Qadir Chandio said that keeping the increasing population in mind it was important to establish more educational institutions in the province.
Amendment matters
The Sindh assembly adopted a unanimous resolution requesting the Sindh government to approach federal government to refrain from all delaying the implementation of the 18th Amendment. The resolution was moved by Sindh Education Minister Nisar Khuhro.
Members of PPP and MQM criticised the federal government and demanded of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to look into the matter in order to avoid a confrontation between the federation and provinces later.
Other resolutions
In another resolution moved by MQM MPA Kamran Akhtar, the assembly demanded a crackdown against people who called themselves "aamils" and were exploiting people. The provincial assembly also passed a resolution demanding the government to fix paddy price at Rs1,200 per maund (40 kg).
Remembers the comrade
Two minutes of silence were observed at the beginning of Tuesday's session for comrade Sobho Gianchandai, a veteran political and Marxist leader, who passed away in Larkana. The session was adjourned till Wednesday (today) by the deputy speaker.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2014.
COMMENTS (7)
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@grunt:
That used to be the convention in Pakistan which changed after Nawaz Sharif renamed a number of parks, hospitals and other public institutions after himself in early 90s.
The only notable (Pakistani) exception before that was naming of bridge as Ayub bridge in Sukkur.
Ofcourse it simply caught on then.
I don't know what their problem is, what i know is they are not willing to do any good to the people Pakistan, they need to work very hard on training people so they can survive, they need to develop training and development programs to help people grow well.
Well seems that it is a nice initiative, rather increasing the number of universities government should add something to industries and infrastructure so that the passed out students could get jobs easily
We should improve our education system.
Dear politicians, for the love of God forgive this nation and keep education separate from politics.
Don't want to pee pee on anyone's parade, but aren't we supposed to wait for someone to, ahem, depart, before we name an institute after them? There is no road named after Edhi Sahib yet, after all. Of course, the only exception being megalomaniacs like Saddam, Gaddafi and Kim. Guess I've answered my own question here.
Thank you Malik Riaz!