PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has expedited efforts to set up the Education City, an iconic project that would help establish the party’s image of change.
“Formal work on the project has already been started. The feasibility report has been made, Section-4 imposed for land acquisition, and more importantly, the education authority for the purpose has been formed,” said Asad Qaiser, a senior leader of PTI and speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, here yesterday who considers the Education City as one of his four priorities. His other priorities, besides development of his native district, Swabi, are education programme for orphans and street children on the pattern of Ummah Welfare Trust, establishment of industrial estate and construction of expressway from Motorway to Chakdara.
Asad Qaiser was quite serious about the Education City, which, he said, he was pursuing personally. “The Education City would be established at an area of 30,000 canals of land near Karnal Sher Khan Interchange on Motorway in the Nowshera district.”
“Initial work for the project has been done. Budget would be announced for it in the next phase,” he said.
Some 20 state-run universities have expressed willingness to set up campuses in the city. The University of Bedfordshire has already inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the provincial government to set up its campus. “Efforts are also on to sign a similar MoU with the University of Bradford,” Asad Qaiser said.
The provincial assembly speaker said the provincial government would fully support and provide free land to the world universities that want to set up regional campus in the area.
The provincial government has also reached an understanding with the British Council, which recently arranged a visit for the government representatives to the United Kingdom where they participated in an international education roundtable.
Asad Qaiser said the UK visit provided them a good opportunity to share the idea with the leading educationists from across the world. Khalid Khan, additional secretary higher education, who is supervising the project, told The News that they have arranged meetings with all the stakeholders to ensure early execution of the project. He said technically speaking, formal work on the proposed Education City has been started and the idea would soon be translated into practical shape.
Internews
