Twitter erupts over federal minister's remarks on Pakistani academia during coronavirus outbreak

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday got flak for criticising the role of Pakistani universities in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

The minister, in a tweet, had said: "Where are Pak Universities? Everywhere in the world Universities are providing guideline to the Govts through leading reserach and policy papers,why Pak Unis are silent spectators?"

"We need to up the game...Vc’s must initiate reserach..up the game guys," he wrote.

Shortly after his tweet, Twitteratis slammed the federal minister asking him to reflect on his own actions before pointing fingers at others.

'Apne girebaan mein jhaanko before you start pointing fingers'

'Two years already gone'

'How can they research without funding'

"The present government has slashed the education budget to such an extent that the institutions have to pay teachers salaries by taking loans. How do you expect them to conduct researches," asked one Twitter user.

'Audit of big guns?'

'This govt holds record of significantly decreasing education budget'

'Do better'

The federal government, despite making tall claims of developing the education sector, allocated a mere 2.8% for education from the total 2019-20 budget.