ISLAMABAD: A Senate committee was informed on Monday that Pakistan has so far produced 18,523 PhDs.

The Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education, Professional Training, National History and Literary Heritage met in Parliament House with Senator Rahila Magsi in the chair.

A working paper prepared by the HEC, `implementation status` of decisions taken in previous meeting stated: `HEC maintains a PhD country directory based on information provided by universities. As per the directory, 18,523 local Ph Ds have been produced in Pakistan.

The committee discussed various issues of the education sector. After discussing land compensation to affected people by three universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the meeting formed a subcommittee under Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed with Dr Mehr Taj Roughani and Behramand Tangi as members to resolve the issue of delay of payment to people on whose land the three universities were set up. Senators Barrister Mohammad Ali Khan Saif and Dilawar Khan will assist the committee.

Discussing alleged delaying tactics by the HEC in paying compensation to the landowners by Bacha Khan University Mardan, Senator Dilawar Khan said priority should be given to owners of small land as they cannot afford hiring lawyers to pursue cases. He said they would not object if the compensation was given in tranches. University representatives told the committee that the matter was to be solved by the provincial government as the universities did not have the requisite amount of Rs15 billion.

The subcommittee will look into the financial as well as humanitarian issues and submit a report to the committee.

About a separate women campus of Kohat University of Science and Technology, Senator Shamim Afridi informed the committee that he had transferred 190 kanals in the name of the university.

The committee told the HEC and the ministry to coordinate with the senator and the KP government to ensure that the campus was built on separate land.Kashif Abbasi