Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Friday inaugurated three centres including Pakistan China Joint Research Centre, Pakistan China Joint Research Centre on Earth Sciences, Dr A Q Khan Institute of Material and Emergency Sciences at the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) Islamabad. These Higher Education Commission (HEC)-sponsored centres, approved by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP), were formally launched during a ceremony held at the QAU which was attended among others by QAU Vice Chancellor Dr Niaz, Chinese officials and a large number of students.
Speaking at the occasion, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said the centres would play a key role in producing world-class researchers.
He said these projects remained pending for the last four years but the incumbent government ensured their launch.
The minister said Pakistan China Joint Research Centre would play a vital role in producing researchers who would prove to be beneficial in in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
Ahsan Iqbal said the Chinese Vice-Premier recently visited Pakistan to mark the 10-year celebrations of CPEC which showed the complete support from the Chinese government.
The incumbent government, the minister, had revived the CPEC projects which remained neglected by the previous government, highlighting several initiatives taken by the government that came into power in April 2022.
Pakistan China Joint Research Centre on Earth Sciences deals with all fields of natural science related to the study of our planet’s physical characteristics, from earthquakes to raindrops, and floods to fossils and the impact of human activities on Earth’s environment.
The Centre, besides other earth-related studies, would focus on the impacts of CPEC’s large-scale infrastructure activities, promoting scientific and technological research and development studies in the earth sciences.
It would be the 1st of its kind to look into the problems related to land, sea, and atmosphere due to large-scale CPEC infrastructure and other activities.
The Centre will also contribute towards enhanced knowledge of the geological evolution of processes and natural hazards, as well as proposing measures to deal with natural hazards.
