From left: Mr. Sanjeev Jayasinghe, Head-ERCO; H.E. Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, Federal Minister for Science & Technology, Chairman-HEC; Prof. Dr. Sohail Naqvi, Executive Director-HEC; Prof. Kazi Ahmed, SET faculty and Prof. S. Mahmood Raza, Adviser (HRD), HEC
Delegation returns from Pakistan successful
An AIT delegation to Pakistan secured support for AIT's future, renegotiated an agreement to send students and faculty to AIT and finalized plans for an AIT center in Islamabad.
Prof. Kazi Ahmed , of the School of Engineering and Technology and Mr. Sanjeev Jayasinghe, head of the External Relations and Communications Office visited Islamabad 24-26 May 2006. They met with H.E. Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman , chairman of Pakistan's Higher Education Commission, and Dr. Sohail H. Naqvi, executive director of the commission.
Under the new collaboration the commission will send and support 20 students per year to pursue their master's in engineering for a period of three years. In addition, the commission would like to support seconded Pakistani faculty members to AIT as soon as the fields of study are identified by AIT.
Moreover, Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman mentioned that Pakistan would fully support AIT in its efforts to be accredited as an intergovernmental organization, and he assured AIT that he would inform the president of Pakistan that his government would be willing to be a founding member of AIT.
During the visit, the delegation also met with Dr. Junaid Zaidi, rector of the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South Institute of Information Technology, which is the partner organization identified in Pakistan for establishing the AIT Center .
The terms and conditions for an AIT Center in Pakistan were finalized and agreed upon by both parties. The proposed business plan will be for an initial period of three years for master's degree program in telecommunications. The program will be supported fully by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. The business plan will be finalized by the two parties by August 2006 and the program is expected to begin in January 2007.