The Sindh Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a bill to elevate the status of historic Sindh Madressa-tul-Islam to a modern university to provide higher education "indiscriminately".

Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq moved the bill, saying the institution was established in 1875 and since then it had been providing quality education to students. He paid tributes to the founder of the academic institution, Nawabzada Hassan Ali Effendi, who envisioned an academic platform for Muslims of the sub-continent in general and Sindh in particular.

Congratulating the education minister for the historic decision, PPP lawmaker Jam Tamachi invited the attention of the House towards the existing universities in the province, saying basic infrastructure of these varsities also needs to be upgraded.

The original bill did not have the faculty of Information Technology for the proposed university. Later PPP legislator Dr Sikandar Mangro suggested inclusion of the faculty through an amendment, which the House also accepted by passing a resolution unanimously.

Dr Sikandar Mangro was of the view that IT education was a must to meet the modern day challenges.

The university will have faculties of science, education, law, medicine, Islamic studies, management, business administration and commerce, engineering, pharmacy, social sciences, language and culture studies, police planning and development, marine sciences, and faculty of IT.

Pir Mazhar termed Sindh Madressa-tul-Islam 'mother of all institutions' in Pakistan. "The Sindh Madressa-tul-Islam is the pioneering Muslim educational institution in Pakistan, having distinction of being the alma mater of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. To provide higher education to the students, it is expedient to enhance the status of this institute by enacting this law," the minister added.

He thanked all his government partners including MQM, NPP, PML-F and ANP, besides his party lawmakers for extending their support for elevation of the institution.

Syed Sardar Ahmed of MQM urged the government to ensure high standard of education in province. He said there was a great need of such institutions at home as the UK and US governments had now changed their policies for foreign students and give priorities to their own citizens over others.

The aged lawmaker also called upon the government to lay strict merit conditions for students at the proposed institution, like the Ankara University of Turkey.

He pointed out that the son of a Prime Minister of a country was denied admission for not meeting the pre-requisites for admission at the Ankara University. He urged that the university's educational standard should be "far-excellence" to attract foreign students as well.

The House also passed a resolution of PML-F lawmaker Nusrat Sehar Abbasi's on CNG Kits unanimously, recommending the Sindh government to approach the federal government for taking action against installation of old and substandard CNG Kits in vehicles.

Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmad Khokhro also asked the Sindh Transport Minister to check and take action against the installers of illegal CNG Kits besides informing the passengers about the risks of travelling through public transport having such dangerous fuel kits.

The Speaker later adjourned the session till Dec 30, 2011.