Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Mukhtar Ahmad on Monday said education diplomacy could bring sustainable peace in the region and rather than looking towards the western world, we need to solve the problems of our region through mutual understanding and cooperation and education diplomacy could play an important role in this regard. During his visit to the University of Karachi along with Regional Director HEC Javed Memon and others, he said the Pakistan-China friendship is ideal in the world and the same relationship could be established with other neighbors as well and if we manage to have durable relations in the neighborhood then Pakistan will progress well, said a news release. Dr Mukhtar Ahmad visited the KU Confucius Institute to pay tribute to the Chinese teachers who lost their lives in an unfortunate incident that occurred on April 26, 2022. KU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. Khalid Mahmood Iraqi, Dean of Faculty of Law Justice (Retd.) Hasan Feroz and Dean of Faculty of Management and Administrative Sciences Professor Dr. Tahir Ali, VC Iqra University Dr. Waseem Qazi, Pakistani Director of the Confucius Institute University of Karachi Professor Dr. Muhammad Nasiruddin Khan, CIUK Pakistani faculty, and others were also present on the occasion. Dr Mukhtar Ahmed lauded the role of Chinese faculty and CIUK in promoting the Chinese language in the country and expressed the hope that they would continue teaching Chinese to young Pakistanis. He said the services of Chinese teachers to promote the Chinese language and culture will always be remembered, and China has a key role in the economic development of Pakistan. According to him, even though sinister attempts to damage Pakistan-China relations were being carried out across the country, he believe that such acts would not low down the relationship between two countries that respect each other and immediately come forward to help during difficult times. Dr Mukhtar said recently he met Chinese diplomats and heads of various manufacturing groups, who have shown interest that young Pakistani software engineers and IT professionals should become a part of the Chinese IT industry, and hoped that if these experts have good command over the Chinese language then they would surely perform well in the Chinese market. He mentioned that the CIUK could help those students, by offering special diplomas or short courses, to those who have professional degrees in their hands and want to excel in China. He said the HEC Pakistan values the autonomy of universities but at the same time universities should also be accountable. He expressed that collaboration between academia and industries is necessary and suggested that the universities should step forward and solve the problems being faced by our industries. Dr Mukhtar Ahmed mentioned that HEC Pakistan has asked the public sector universities to set their key performance indicators and the HEC Pakistan would also set KPIs for the universities to check their performances and from next year all the grants would be allocated to the KPIs basis. The HEC chairman shared that HEC Pakistan makes every effort to ensure the timely delivery of grants to all universities. On the occasion, KU VC Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi informed the Chairman HEC Pakistan Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed about the new BS programs launched last year and his plans to initiate a new BS program next year. He mentioned that KU has established industrial advisory boards in all the departments of the university and with the help of market experts we are working to update the curriculum of various departments. He said the University of Karachi is engaging the industries so that our students could learn more about the need of the market. Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi also informed Dr Mukhtar Ahmed that the new building of the Faculty of Law is under construction and it is being built under a public-private partnership program. Earlier, Professor Dr Muhammad Nasiruddin Khan briefed the Chairman of HEC Pakistan about the CIUK in detail. Later, they visited the under-construction building of the Faculty of Law.