Mirpur University's renovated library facilitating 3,000 students

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President, Sardar Masood Khan, has expressed determination to turn the public sector universities of the liberated territory into hubs of modern knowledge.

"It is our passion to transform AJK universities into centres of excellence. Our students should be prepared to serve not only AJK and Pakistan but all over the world," he stressed. 

He expressed these views while addressing the participants at the inauguration ceremony of the administration block and central library at the Jarikas Campus of Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Mirpur on July 2. 

The event was attended among others by the Executive Director of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Dr Fateh Mohammad Marri, the AJK Minister for Power Development Organization, Chaudhry Rukhsar Ahmed, former Minister Chaudhry Mohammad Saeed, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Maqsood Ahmed, and former Vice Chancellor, Prof Dr Habib ur Rehman.

The President said that the AJK has the most literate population of all of Pakistan and now this human resource was stepping into the realms of advanced technological and cutting edge disciplines like cloud computing, blockchain and nano technology. 

“We can easily become a growth engine and economic hub of Pakistan if our students are imparted with such disciplines,” he stated while appreciating the university administration for establishing a business incubator centre and holding job fairs, 

He hoped that the AJK universities will prepare their students to compete with their peers on the regional and global levels to tackle the ever-changing job market. 

“Academic excellence is not confined to one region and we should strive to compete with institutions in the region and international level,” he added. 

He directed the management and faculty to impart quality education of science and technology, business and research to the young generation so that they could not only demonstrate their skills in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir but also raise the image of their motherland on a global level. 

The AJK President unveiled the plaque of the admin block of the city campus and inaugurated central library, student services centre and the mosques built at a cost of 158 million rupees. 

Masood Khan, who is also the chancellor of MUST, commended the university administration for establishing a modern central library, mosque and the cafeteria within the shortest possible time, and directed to reserve a portion of the facility for an e-library to provide online facility of the library to the non-resident students. 

Earlier in his welcome address, Vice Chancellor MUST, Prof Dr Maqsood Ahmed, informed that the library was facilitating book reading for 3,000 students as it possessed two big multimedia sections, workshop rooms and study rooms at the complex. 

He also disclosed that international relations, physics and history have been initiated at Palandri campus while faculty of health and medical sciences including the department of pharmacy, physiotherapy and medical lab technology had been introduced at the city Campus of MUST.