FAISALABAD - Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Tariq Banuri on Wednesday said that Pakistan was taking lead in agriculture sector in the Muslim world so we should help the other Islamic countries in the sector.

“We should share our agricultural experiences with Ummah to flourish the sector In this regard; the UAF can play a pivotal role to boost agricultural productivity in the 57 Muslim countries. He addressed the faculty of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad at New Senate Hall as chief guest whereas UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Zafar Iqbal Randhawa was the guest of honour.

Dr Tariq Banuri said that the commission was putting a special focus on the improvement of quality, access to education, and problem solving research.

He said it is prerequisite to invest in the improvement of quality, and capacity building of faculty members to attain the goal of development. He said that quality should not be compromised with at varsities.

“We have to produce excellent professionals and carry out research relevance of socio-economic needs of masses,” he said.

Explaining future plans, he said, they would build a National Academy for Higher Education for the training and capacity building of the university newly-inducted teaching faculty, and administrative staff.

He said that the faculty at the entrance level in the university would be provided with three months training at the academy.

He said that they would put a special focus on creating leadership qualities to produce excellent administrators as well as vice chancellors. He said that equal importance will be given to education and research.

He said that the HEC was developing a mechanism of picking up 15 elite universities out of all the universities of the country on their performances.

There are 192 universities operating in Pakistan, he said, adding that the mechanism of 15 universes was meant to make them at par with international standards and demands.

They will be given autonomy and additional resources, he said.

He showed his concern that only 3 percent out 10,000 candidates passed the CSS Examination, speaking the poor condition of the educational institutes.

He stressed a need to take special measures for quality improvement in education so that students can perform in their chosen areas.

He was of the view that they are launching a major information technology platform, on the patron of Nadra, to make available degree attestation. He said that they were extensively working to address the problems of the academy and students with new initiatives and friendly policies.

Dr Zafar Iqbal said that academia-industry linkages are need of the hour to fight the challenges of the new era. He said that the target of poverty alleviation can be met with quality education, demand driven research and strong academia-industry linkages.

He added that agriculture was the national economy’s backbone, contributing 20 percent to the Gross Domestic Product. Director ORIC Dr Zahir Ahmad Zahir also spoke on the occasion.