ISLAMABAD: During the visit of Standing Committee of National Assembly for Education and Professional Training to the Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) new campus, on Wednesday, it was recommended that IIUI will work on legislation regarding alcohol under the supervision of National Assembly committee on education.
The meeting was chaired by Dr Amirullah Marwat and attended by Education Federal Minister Engineer Balighur Rehman, Committee Secretary Walayat Khan, IIUI Rector Dr Masoom Yasinzai , IIUI President Dr Ahmed Yousif Al-Dariweesh , Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) vice-chancellor, members of the committee and IIUI vice presidents and director generals.
It was decided that IIUI, through its Islamic Research Institute (IRI) and its other constituent units will help for legislation and guidance on issues pertaining to alcohol. It was also agreed that the work already done on the issue of alcohol will be shared with IIUI.
The Committee Chairman Dr Amir Ullah lauded IIUI for its services and ongoing projects and urged that the research projects must be result oriented at all universities and nepotism and favouritism be avoided in educational institutions.
Engineer Baligh ur Rehman informed in the meeting that Premier’s Fee Reimbursement scheme for less developed areas has increased enrollment of the students in the universities. He added that Rs2 billion rupees annually were being used for this project and provided positive results, upon which, the committee members recommended that the budget of the scheme be increased to Rs6 billion.
The education minister also informed that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has established Office of Research, Innovation & Commercialization (ORIC) departments in around 70 universities and products of few universities have been already adopted by the market.
As per agenda, IIUI Rector Dr Masoom Yasinzai briefed the committee about strengths, achievements, legal framework, budget and futuristic outlook of the university.
He told that IIUI is one of the country’s fastest expanding universities with more than 30,000 on-campus students. He further briefed that around 50 PhD international faculty members and more than 2,000 foreign students were present at the IIUI campuses.
The IIUI Rector also informed that IIUI has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)’s and established linkages with Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, Saudi Arabia’s Um ul Qura University and Madeena University, and many other institutions.
While speaking on the topic of the university curriculum, IIUI rector told that the university had arranged a conference on the topic and it has always stressed on the inclusion of Islamic teachings in the curriculum.
He furthered informed that the university had also adopted the Washington accord and it is preparing its engineering curriculum in the light of international requirements.
NA body members were also apprised that the university through a Paigham e Pakistan initiative had gathered representatives of all sects of Islam and a unanimous decree against suicide attacks and terrorism has been issued which will be announced by the President soon.
During the meeting, IIUI President Dr Al-Draiweesh further informed that the university had organised conferences, seminars, discussions and joint ventures to deal with terrorism, violence, promotion of Islam’s message of peace and protection of human rights.
The president thanked the chairman and committee members for the visit and vowed that their prudent recommendations will be implemented with sincerity.
