LAHORE: (Thursday, March 20, 2014): Chancellor Lahore University of Management Sciences Syed Babar Ali has said that the ultimate goal of education must be to produce good human beings, not only good academics. He said if we want development in Pakistan, then we must allocate maximum resources to education. He was addressing one-day National Education Forum on Higher Education organized by Higher Education Commission, Punjab University’s Sughra Begum Centre for Educational Policy & Development, Institute of Social and Cultural Studies and Promotion of Education in Pakistan Foundation at Dr Pervaiz Hassan Environmental Law Auditorium, New Campus. PU VC Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran, President PEP Foundation Dr Khalid Iqbal, University of Agriculture Faisalabad VC Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, Rector Beachon House National University Lahore Dr Shahid Kardar, Director General SBS Dr Muhammad Akhtar, GCU Faisalabad VC Dr Zakir Hussain, Gujrat University VC Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin, University of Sindh Jamshoro VC Dr Nazir A Mughal, Dean Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Director ISCS Prof Dr Zakria Zakir, In-charge Principal Law College Dr Shazia Qureshi, faculty members and a large number of students were present on the occasion.

Addressing the ceremony, Syed Babar Ali said that we were proud of what Higher Education Commission had done during the last decade but the amount of money being spent on education was regrettable. He said that more than 60 years have passed but we did not give the importance to education sector which it deserved. He said that we must agitate any attempt against the autonomy of the HEC. He called upon the vice chancellors that as they would create next generation, they must give special attention to character building of the students and unfortunately we had ignored training aspects of our students. He said that the vice chancellors must look after the brain as well as body of the students. He said that we must keep ourselves updated on curriculum and we must be aware of latest developments in our fields. He said that the experts of different subjects must interact with each other and share knowledge of their different fields. He said that we have tried to distort history while the history was important to learn lessons. He said that teachers must help the students and teachers were not there to punish students. He said that teachers must also be provided with higher training opportunities. Addressing the ceremony, PU VC Dr Mujahid Kamran lauded Dr Khalid Iqbal and said that he was serving the cause of promoting higher education in Pakistan and spending his time and money on it.

He said that Syed Babar Ali enjoyed the reputation of upholding merit and was a model of integrity who had provided his services for provision of quality higher education in Pakistan. The VC thanked vice chancellors and eminent scholars for participating in the forum. Addressing the ceremony, Dr Khalid Iqbal said the fittest nations were those who were investing more and more on education and had educated masses and workforce. He said that in this age we could not afford to be negligent in the field of higher education. He said that Pakistan had remarkable progress in the recent past years in higher education sphere but still we need to go long way to provide access to higher education to maximum people. He said that we needed to train our graduates and undergraduates and we must have students of international standards. He said that our graduates must be able to measure demands of employers. Dr Zakria Zakir said that Pakistan’s academia was committed to promote and raise standard of higher education in Pakistan. He said that a new force of PhDs had produced in the last ten years which would transform the landscape of higher education in Pakistan. LUMS VC Dr Sohail Naqvi said that education was a must for socio-economic development of the country. He said that the past had proved that if Pakistanis were provided with a chance, they were no lesser than others as they were serving in the top-ranking institutions of the world. He said that education was the only source which could guarantee prosperous Pakistan. Later, three panel discussions were held in which various vice chancellors and educationists threw light on various aspects of higher education in Pakistan.