HEC asks universities to promote lassi, sattu

KARACHI: The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) has suggested the universities to promote the consumption of local drinks such as Lassi and Sattu amid the ongoing financial crisis, ARY News reported on Friday.

While implementing the advice of Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal to lessen tea consumption, the HEC has asked the vice-chancellors (VCs) of the public sector universities to promote local drinks such as Lassi and Sattu ‘that would reduce the country’s import bill’

In a notification, HEC acting chairperson Dr Shaista Sohail asked the vice-chancellors to take a “leadership role and think of innovative ways to provide relief to the lower-income groups and the economy as a whole”.

The measures include:

Reduce fossil fuel imports; promote research in alternate energy as a substitute for imported fossil fuel in motorcycles, busses, trains, cars, etc.

Reduce edible oil imports; research on local cooking oils and their marketing to replace imported edible oils.

Promote local tea plantations and also traditional drinks which are locally manufactured and healthy like lassi and sattu. This will increase employment and also generate income involved in manufacturing these drinks for the public. The expenditure on the import of tea would reduce our import bill.

It is pertinent to mention here that Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal earlier this month asked fellow countrymen to cut down on tea consumption as part of the effort to reduce a rising import bill.