DESPITE a ‘clarification’ issued by the press secretary to the office of the President of Pakistan some five years ago (March 1, 2019) regarding funds for the NFC Institute of Engineering and Technology (NFC-IET), the work on the establishment of NFC-IET sub-campus in Naushahro Feroze has not even started to date.

As per the clarification, the Ministry of Industries and Production had informed the president’s secretariat that no funds had been stopped for the said project. In fact, an amount of Rs46.448 million had already been spent on land acquisition and other expenses, it was said at the time. Moreover, a full-time project director had been appointed, and work on the revised PC-1 was underway.

However, despite these ‘developments’, the project has not yet broken ground. Funds worth Rs810 million were earmarked for the project, and work needs to be initiated without any further delay. The relevant authorities should expedite the process and do something on the ground instead of merely issuing ‘clarifications’.

Dr Abdul Qadeer Memon
Naushahro Feroze

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2024