By IRNA
Srinagar : Following the approval of the state cabinet, the proposed “Transworld Muslim University Kashmir” project formally kicked off Wednesday with the opening up of a campus branch office.
Vice-Chancellor (V-C) designate of the varsity, Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Siddiqi who is presently head of department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine at Srinagar’s Institute of Medical Sciences said the university has plans to position itself at the “crossroad of academics and entrepreneurship.”
Jamiat-e-Ahle-Hadis, religious body of Salafi Muslims here is behind the 1.5 billion Rs project. The Jamiat president, Maulana Shaukat Ahmad Shah, said that the university would start with seven departments, including the school of shariat, school of medicine, school of farm technology, school of applied integrated sciences, school of law, school of architecture and design, and school of business studies.
A four-hundred bedded hospital, too, would be constructed in the varsity and this would be completed within one-and-a-half years, he said.
The proposed university is likely to come up in two years.
The state government has allotted around 500 sq meters of land to Jamiat-e-Ahlihadis for the purpose in the city outskirts.Shah said the varsity will aim at producing a “generation of leaders” in Medicine, Science, Technology, and Religion based on Islamic Sharia.
“Due to the overall economic distress and educational backwardness of the people of Kashmir over-shadowed by political instability, Jamiat felt the crying need of society’s socio-economic development,” Shah said at the inaugural function.
“Primarily, the university will target the student population for imparting modern skills in technologies so as to prepare them for individual entrepreneurship as well as the resource for the upcoming international market,” he said.
Besides top government officials those present on the occasion included the general secretary of the All India Jami’at-e-Ahl-Hadis, Asghar Ali Mehdi.
Trans World Muslim University will be fourth university in the state run by any religious body.
Mata Vaisno Devi University in Jammu is run by a Hindu trust while two universities, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University in Rajouri district and the Islamic University in Srinagar, are run by Govt controlled Muslim Waqf Board.