COLOMBO: Pakistan is involved in a number of social and educational uplift projects in Sri Lanka benefiting not just the Muslims, but all communities in the island nation. On Friday, Pakistan donated a fully equipped Information Technology Laboratory to Sri Saddarmodaya Maha Vidyalaya (school) in Colombo. 

The acting High Commissioner of Pakistan in Sri Lanka, Dr Sarfraz Ahmed Khan Sipra, inaugurated the lab along with the Sri Lankan Minister for Disaster Management, A.H.M. Fowzie, and former Minister of Technology and Resea­rch, Professor Tissa Vitharana.

Mr Sipra emphasised the importance of collaboration between the two countries for the uplift of the common man. He reiterated Pakistan’s continued support to Sri Lanka in enhancing the younger generation’s nation-building capacity by providing better educational opportunities.

Minister Fowzie recalled that Pak­is­tan had helped Sri Lanka in times of crisis. Former Minister of Technology and Research Professor Tissa Vitharana, while appreciating the support extended by the government of Pakistan for the school, underlined the fact that the project would benefit students from all communities.

Pakistan is involved in a number of grassroots level projects in Sri Lanka. Some of them are: construction of a school in Vavuniya in the Northern Province, a district hospital at Akurana, construction of a three-storey state of the art school in Gampaha, equipping science laboratories in schools, and the revival of the handloom sector in Mirigama, Gampaha District. It has set up 30 computer and six stitching centres, and provides ambulances to hospitals, gives away the annual Jinnah and other higher education scholarships for the study of medicine, engineering, dentistry and pharmacy in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2015

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