Six Pak universities ranked among top 700, NA told

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was informed on Friday that Pakistan’s six universities are ranked in top 700 universities of the world.

Responding to questions of parliamentarians in the National Assembly, Minister of State Muhammad Balighur Rehman said that as per Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) world ranking 2015-16, six Pakistani universities are ranked in top 701.

The universities included National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Lahore University of Management Sciences, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, University of Karachi and University of Lahore.

He said as per QS Asia ranking 2015-16, 10 Pakistani universities are ranked in top 100-350.The universities included, Lahore University of Management Sciences, National University of Science and Technology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Agha Khan University, Karachi, University of Karachi, University of Punjab, Comsats Institute of Information Technology, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore and University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.

To another question, he said the government under vision 2025 has planned three years Programme with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to establish a public sector university/campus/ sub-campus in each district across the country. The minister said that Rs6 million have been allocated for training of teachers in Islamabad. He said 2,264 teachers had been trained from educational institutions under Federal Directorate of Education, Islamabad with the cooperation of national training institutes and partners.Responding to another question, he said laptops will be distributed among the students of Fata soon.

Parliamentary Secretary for Interior and Narcotics Control Maryam Aurangzeb informed the National Assembly that the federal capital hospitals will be provided latest equipment and human recourse to provide best medical facilities to masses. Responding to a question, she said to ensure presence of doctors in the hospital, biometric system has been introduced in many departments while in the remaining departments the system will be introduced soon.

Maryam Aurangzeb said the government has introduced health reforms in Islamabad Capital Territory to upgrade health care services. She said that Polyclinic double shift has been started while missing facilities will be provided. She said a summary has been moved for new posts of 100 medical officers. She said a CT scan and an MRI machine would be provided at FGPC, the PC-I has been submitted in CA&DD for onward submission to Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform for approval.

Maryam Aurangzeb said a 20-bed ICU with 20 ventilators will be built at the Polyclinic and PC-I had been submitted to Ministry of Planning Development and Reform for approval. She said a medical and dental college with 100 seats for the medicines and 50 seats for dentistry will be constructed and attached with Polyclinic. She said that the government has lifted ban on purchase of physical assets including machinery/equipment and allocated budget of Rs52.50 million during the current financial year. She said the government has lifted ban on fresh recruitment and the appointment of staff including doctors, nurses paramedics and other supporting staff is under process.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid to a question informed the House that 251,561 government advertisements worth Rs7.79 billion were published in newspapers from January 01, 2013 to July 31, 2016.

During the ongoing year till July, the advertisements worth Rs1.68 billion have been issued to newspapers.During the year 2013, advertisements worth Rs1.76 billion, in 2014 advertisements worth Rs1.63 billion and in 2015 advertisements of Rs2.7 billion were issued to newspapers.