Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, recommended university students with special needs to strengthen their minds as the key to success.

The Minister spoke at the HEC Secretariat on Wednesday during the final phase of the Prime Minister’s Electric Wheelchair for University Students program’s delivery of electric wheelchairs to students.

The ceremony gave 50 pupils motorised wheelchairs. In 2017, 206 electric wheelchairs were given to physically challenged university students. In the second phase, 159 wheelchairs were given.

Ahsan Iqbal cited Stephen Hawking as an example of how a physically challenged person who uses their brains may achieve great things. Pakistan’s future rests on timely decisions. Lack of patience, perseverance, and policy consistency haunts a nation’s progress.

Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed praised Ahsan Iqbal for designing and implementing the 2016-17 electric wheelchair programme for disabled university students. He claimed that HEC has collected data on physically challenged university students, including those with mobility, vision, and hearing impairments, and will supply them with devices and tools in the next stage of the plan. “HEC is committed to delivering in light of Government Vision 2025,” he said.

Some wheelchair users thanked the Government and HEC for implementing the Prime Minister’s Electric Wheelchair Scheme. Dr. Shaista Sohail, Director General (Scholarships) Aayesha Ikram, and other HEC executives attended the ceremony.

The Minister then inaugurated HEC’s RFI portal. The Executive Director HEC briefed the Minister on the RFI portal’s key characteristics and how it will improve academia-industry-government collaboration to speed academic research commercialization.

The Minister liked the portal’s goals and thought it would improve academia-industry-government relations.