LAHORE (July 13): Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) has awarded Rs. 50,000 cheuqe and an appreciation certificate to Dr Ijaz Hussain Khan, the professor and former director Punjab University Institute of Engineering & Technology, who is also a Qarshi Research Fellow, for his highly commendable research work and successful completion of a project on gas transmission pipeline.

A letter, PSF/ILG/002/03 Dated 03-07-2008 from PSF Chief Scientific Officer Dr Manzoor H Soomro, reads, “The Pakistan Science Foundation Technical Committee on Engineering Sciences adopted the Final Technical Report of the project entitled “Disbondment of Epoxy Coating and Integrity of Gas Transmission Pipeline” with satisfaction and highly appreciates the achievements accomplished by you (Dr I H Khan) and your team.”

For commendable research work and successful completion of the project, the PSF Technical Committee on Engineering Sciences has recommended the cash prize of Rs 50,000/- and an appreciation certificate for Dr Khan which has been approved by the foundation. “We hoped that you will continue to give your valuable expertise in the field of Corrosion Engineering to industry and academia. On behalf of PSF our heart felt felicitation to you and Punjab University for this honour,” it reads. Dr I H Khan said that the credit for this project goes to PU which is the mother of all varsities of Pakistan. He said this was a joint project of PU, HEC (Higher Education Commission), PSF and SSGC (Sui Southern Gas Company) Karachi, which provided technical assistance, Rs 2 million, Rs1.8 million and Rs1.8 million respectively for it.

Dr Khan said through this project we have judged the integrity of the Coating and Cathotic Protection of our existing gas pipelines and the report in this regard is satisfactory. This project will also provide valueable guidelines for our upcoming ventures in this field, he said and added that if this project has been done by some foreign firm through tender this would have four-time extra expenditures. Dr Khan said this is the first project of its kind which is done by Pakistani experts and engineers. Besides judging our existing infrastructure and having a guideline of the future venture, a PU student is also doing Ph.D on this subject under this project and the same will be very beneficial for the country, he said. Dr Khan said the team for this project included Pakistani expatriates, Dr Ameer Hussain (Germany), Dr Inam Khokhar (USA) both expert in coating technology and Cathodic Protection respectively.

From PU former VC Prof Dr Muhammad Arif Butt, Prof Dr Javed Ahmad, Prof Dr Rafiq Ahmad, Engineer Aqeel Inam and Ph.D scholar Usman Majeed contributed in this project, he said. From Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) Karachi Engineer Mustafa Abdullah, K Imdad Ali, Saleem A Mughal and from PSF its chairman Noor Muhammad Butt and its former chairman Dr Farid Malik.

PU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran has lauded the services of Dr I H Khan and congratulated him and his team for doing a remarkable work on the project of gas transmission pipeline. He said Punjab University teachers and researchers are full of talent as this year Dr Riaz-ud-Din of PU Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) also won US$100,000 Islamic Development Bank’s cash prize for outstanding contribution to the scientific knowledge and our two teachers, Prof Muhammad Sharif of Mathematics and Dr Zubair Ahmad of CEMB, won Tamgha-e-Imtiaz and another teacher Shahida Parveen of PU Islamic Centre won Fatima Jinnah Award for their excellent contribution in their respective fields.