Body formed to speed up work at 'Knowledge City'

LAHORE On the directions of Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif a steering committee has been established to speed up the completion of Knowledge City near Lahore. The project aims at increasing the literacy rate and also spreading knowledge of technical and scientific nature at a higher level for the sake of pumping in more and more technologists, skill hands, academicians etc in the system to enable it run in lines with modern day requirements and apace with other developing countries. PML-N MNA and former federal minister Ahsan Iqbal has been designated as the chairman of this high-end and highly anticipated project of the government of the Punjab. A kick off meeting of the newly established committee was held Thursday at the civil secretariat Punjab, which was chaired by Ahsan Iqbal. The other participants included Chairman P&D, Secretary Higher Education Commission, Secretary Information Technology and other higher officials from different departments of the government of Punjab. Talking to the participants, Ahsan Iqbal said the proposed Knowledge City would be established near Lahore occupying the area of 700 acres of the land. Ahsan said the government of Punjab wanted to complete the project of Knowledge City under the public-private partnership mode and according to the vision of CM Punjab, the project aims to facilitate a state-of-the-art knowledge industry and knowledge entrepreneur. He said the government of Punjab by virtue of this project, wanted to attract the talented expatriates who were working in different countries in the field of Information Technology and engineering etc, and bringing them back to Pakistan. For this purpose, the Punjab government was planning to create a high-tech environment compatible to the international standards offering every possible facility. We are striving to compete the other nations living in todays knowledge era. In order to progress and grow, we need to establish knowledge engine of growth, he added. Sketching out the vision of the proposed Knowledge City, he said the knowledge city would be self-contained in all respects offering high quality infrastructure both for work and living including but not limited to housing, health care, education, wide array of internet connectivity services, recreation, community center and sports facilities. He said an independent power generation system would also be developed.