Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday said the government was setting up a Knowledge Park on 800 acres in Lahore.
He said separate campuses for information technology, engineering, medicine and other fields would be set up at the Knowledge Park.
He said a state-of-the-art liver and kidney centre will also be established at the park. He said some foreign educational institutions had expressed interest in establishing campuses at the park.
He was talking to a delegation of Louisville University of America.
The chief minister said the government wanted to develop education and health sectors at an accelerated pace.
He said education was the key to progress and development.
He said the steps taken for development of education and health sectors had yielded positive and encouraging results.
He said research was very important for education and health sectors and there was a need to invest in modern research to improve health facilities.
He said the Knowledge Park would be open to local and foreign educational institutions to set up their campuses.
He said a plan had been evolved for establishing a research institute at the centre.
He said a hospital set up in Muzaffargarh with the cooperation of Turkey would start functioning from June 2014 and modern healthcare facilities would become available to the people of South Punjab.
Delegates of the Louisville University expressed interest in setting up a medical institute at the knowledge park.
Provincial Minister for Education Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan and the higher education secretary were also present.
Command and control system to curb crime: Shahbaz
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Thursday a modern command and control centre the police were setting up would play an important role in improving the law and order situation and controlling street crime in the province.
He said all divisions of the province would be linked to the control centre through a satellite in a phased programme.
He said the centre would be able to monitor the city and would help curb street crime.
He was presiding over a meeting to review the progress on the command and control centre project. Various proposals in this regard were also discussed.
The chief minister said the command and control centre project was of vital importance.
He said state-of-the-art equipments would be installed at the centre. He said in the first phase, CCTV cameras would be installed at important places, bazaars and markets in the provincial metropolis. He said the scope of the project would be extended to other cities under a phased programme.
The chief minister said the centre would operate as an independent and autonomous institution.
He said a survey had been completed for the installation of the latest CCTV cameras at 1,800 sites in Lahore. Sharif also issued instructions for the formation of a steering committee for speedy implementation of the project.
Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, Minister for Environment Protection Col (R) Shuja Khanzada, the inspector general of police and the home secretary were also present.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2014.