PESHAWAR: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has said that 10,000 Pakistani students would get admission in the US universities under a Memorandum of Understanding.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of academic block and multi-purpose hall at Khyber Medical University on Wednesday, he said that the MoU `Knowledge Corridor` was signed by the prime minister during his recent visit to the US.

The minister said that he was overwhelmed by the achievements of KMU in a short span of eight years of its existence.

KMU Vice-chancellor Prof Mohammad Hafizullah and Registrar Dr Fazal Mahmood, heads of all institutes, faculty, staff and students of the university were present on the occasion. The minister also performed ground-breaking ceremony of two health research institutes -the Institute of Hepatology and Institute of Diabetology -at the university.

He said inauguration of academic block and multi-purpose hall costing Rs725.709 million and earth breaking of Institute of Hepatology and Institute of Diabetology at a cost of Rs980.352 million manifested that federal government was interested in the development of medical education and facilities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Mr Iqbal said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was a $46 billion project, which was reflective of the trust shown by international investors in their policies and transparent system. He said that some people were trying to make the project controversial for their personal and political interests. However, they would not be allowed to hijack or sabotage the national project, he added.

The minister said that government gave equal importance to all the federating units including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab, Fata and Gilgit-Baltistan.

He said that the US would provide opportunity of advance education and research to 10,000 students of Pakistan in various American universities. It would enable the youth to meet the future challenges, he added.

The minister said that government raised the annual budget of Higher Education Commission from Rs48 billion to 78 billion. It would help in boosting the higher education and research in the country, he added.

He hoped that with the completion of two new projects at KMU new windows of better healthcare as well as research would be opened. He asked the medical students to focus on the treatment of ailing humanity and worl< on the preventive aspects of various communicable and non-communicable diseases.

On the occasion, Prof Hafizullah gave a presentation about the progress and achievements of the university and shed light on the academic programmes for the development of healthcare system.

He said that the university played role of umbrella and introduced new courses and techniques in line with the globally-recognised practices to meet the challenges posed by the present`s day advancements in the area of medical education and healthcare. `We accord top priority to inculcate element of medical ethics among the students with a view to prepare them for helping the ailing people,` said Prof Hafizullah.