PESHAWAR: Securing another four-year term as vice-chancellor of the University of Engineering and Technology, Imtiaz Hussain Gillani would become the longest serving head of any public sector varsity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “In exercise of the powers conferred upon him under Section 10 (I) of the University of Engineering and Technology Ordinance 1980, the governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa/chancellor UET has been pleased to reappoint Engr Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gillani as Vice-Chancellor UET for a period of 4 years w.e.f. 28th, January, 2012,” stated a notification issued by the secretary, Higher Education Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday. This is the fourth consecutive term as vice-chancellor of UET being given to Imtiaz Gillani. Initially, he was appointed as vice-chancellor for two years in January 2004 when Lt Gen (R) Iftikhar Hussain Shah was the governor/chancellor of the public sector universities in the province. Lt Gen (R) Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai gave him another two-year term to serve the university in January 2006, which was extended for four more years by the-then Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani. Masood Kausar, the present governor, renewed his tenure for another four years, making him the longest serving vice-chancellor of any public sector university in the province. Before him, only Mohammad Ali remained vice-chancellor of the University of Peshawar for eight consecutive years in 1960s. Imtiaz Gillani did his BSc in Civil Engineering in 1968 from the Engineering College, University of Peshawar. He secured full scholarship for his master’s in Structural Engineering at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, which he completed in 1971. In the early 1970s, he moved to the US where he continued his studies along with a job. He did his Master’s in Business Administration (Finance) from the Rutgers Business School, New Jersey in 1980, after which he returned to Pakistan and set up his own business. During General Pervez Musharraf’s rule, he served as provincial minister for education, information, sports and youth affairs for three years. Having done his bit at the engineering university, both on the academic and development sides, Imtiaz Gillani said his focus now was to get four percent of the GDP allocated for education at least in the provincial budget. “Unless and until we are able to provide credible education at the public sector school level, we would be unable to overcome the issues we are faced with,” he told The News. “It is the prime objective of my life to convince the policymakers at the provincial level to take lead in the country by allocating four percent of the GDP for education. Only then we would be able to overcome the burning issues,” he said. He also wants to establish a standard campus of the UET, Peshawar in Kohat on the directives of the governor. Three satellite campuses have already been established in Bannu, Abbottabad and Mardan under his administration. He intends to upgrade the Mardan campus to a separate full-fledged university. The vice-chancellor also has plans to establish University of Technology on the land already acquired for a world-class university in Mamu Khatki area as part of the Higher Education Commission project, which could not materialise. The UET has been short-listed along with the National University for Sciences and Technology (NUST) for the establishment of the Centre of Excellence for Energy. “We want to acquire this mega project funded by the HEC and USAID, for which we have completed our homework and hopefully we would be successful in getting it,” he said. The establishment of a Technology Park — an idea floated during the caretaker set-up in the province under Shamsul Mulk — is another aim of Imtiaz Gilani. “The Technology Park would be a place where the things in the minds of learned professors could be converted into marketable products. As soon as we get 100 acres land for the project, we would set up the park,” he said. Completion of the UET Jalozai campus is also among his top priorities and work on it is underway.
