Hundreds of mediocre, dysfunctional universities are littered across Pakistan. Now another one is on its way. To be located at the Prime Minister House on Islamabad’s Constitution Avenue, it has been named Pak University of Engineering & Emerging Technologies. Costing 34.730 billion Pakistani rupees – of which 23.54 billion Pakistani rupees has been approved – this exceeds by eight to 10 times the price of an average public university.
Heavy hype surrounds the university. The official planning document called PC-1 says it is a “Dream University” with “Centres of Excellence” in hi-tech fields – artificial intelligence, machine learning, microelectronics, aerospace, cybersecurity and biotech. Its international faculty will make it “stand among the top research universities of the world while catering to the advanced technology needs of the country”.
Wait! Have we not been there before, time and time again? For a full 20 years, Atta-ur-Rahman – the project’s architect – has been promising the moon to simple-minded national leaders. His other projects have flopped, wasting vast sums of public money. Before Pakistan next approaches International Monetary Fund for the usual dole, we need to recall his unfulfilled pledges.
Billions wasted
Let us begin with Rahman’s three scientific institutes (Husein Ebrahim Jamal Research Institute, TWCST, Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research). These have operated for decades and, between them, annually consume over 1...
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