ABBOTTABAD, Dec 1: Chairman Higher Education Commission Prof Dr Atta-ur-Rehman on Wednesday said that there were only 200 Ph.D scholars in the country and the government had set a target to increase their number to between 1,200 and 1,500 in four to five years.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a three-day workshop on Genetic Engineering Techniques arranged by the Hazara University of Science & Technology in collaboration with the National Commission on Scientific Research, Dr Attaur Rehman, said the government was also trying to convert the trend of brain drain into brain gain and as a result of its efforts 298 Ph.D scholars, working abroad had already returned home out of which 50 would stay on long-term basis whereas 90 more would be coming in the next few months.

He also said that through the digital library established by the commission, Pakistan has become the first country of the world whose scholars, researchers and students had access to 15,000 prominent research journals of the world.

As the part of the efforts in this connection, he said, tenure track system towards the salary package of the university teachers have been introduced through which the pay and package of the teachers had been increased.

Speaking on the occasion, the NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah stressed the need of recasting the whole educational system to make it compatible with the scientific realities and research orientation.

He said universities and research institutions should concentrate more on local capacity building by using the scientific techniques, skills, knowledge and natural resources, which, he added, was the need of the hour to achieve the desired goals.

The governor said that Genetic Engineering Techniques had also brought wonderful changes in developing new medicines and vaccines. These genetically developed drugs and vaccines, he said, can safely treat certain most complicated ones which were thought to be incurable with the traditional medicines.

The "Green Revolution", the governor said, sweeping across the Globe, was made possible due to the practical application of these techniques, which, he added, had contributed to increase the yield of different agricultural crops many times.