Musharraf orders closure of illegal universities

President General Pervez Musharraf taking strong exception of illegal higher education institution operating in the country has directed the provinces to shut down fake universities in three months time.
The directives were given in a high-level meeting on education, chaired by President General Pervez Musharraf, attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Governors and Chief Ministers, on Thursday.
The meeting also decided to link the funding of public sector universities to the laid down criteria of Higher Education Commission for education standard and governance system.
The meeting adopted a roadmap to synergies knowledge in field of science and technology with the country's industrial sector requirements. The meeting also directed the provinces to shut down universities illegally operating in the country with in three months.
It was decided in the meeting to speedup the establishment of nine engineering universities with the help of Austria, Germany, Japan, Italy, France, China, South Korea and Sweden at a cost of Rs 160 to 180 billion over a period of ten years.
The nine universities would be fully funded by the government whereas the foreign countries would provide renowned faculty and necessary expertise to run the institutions on latest lines in consonance with our development needs.
However, the meeting decided to correspond funding of these universities with the quality of education. The meeting also agreed on a mechanism to award finances to private universities.
Opening the meeting, the President observed that the government would not only encourage the universities to align their standards with the best institutions of higher learning in the world but also make available necessary means to achieve that end.
"We have already swelled the budget for higher education to Rs22 billion (including development expenditures) this year from a mere Rs500 million in the year 1999-2000 we have provided a strong base for equipping our human resource with the best tools of progress," he said, at the meeting, which decided that from now on the appointment of vice chancellors of universities would be made on the basis of recommendations of a scholars' search committee.
President Musharraf said Pakistan's economic turnaround would be used to impart permanence to its development in the fields including information technology, engineering, agro-based industry, large scale manufacturing, automobiles, communication, and tourism and commerce infrastructure etc.
"For the country to move forward on socio-economic planes, we must establish linkages between the universities and the industry," he said and added that the country would continue to harness its potential in the agriculture sector on modern lines.