Previous Story
MP Lee officers condolences on the passing of Fazal Karim
Posted On 22 Jan 2024
MP for Pointe a Pierre David Lee and former Minister of Tertiary Education and Skills Training Fazal Karim
As Member of Parliament for Pointe a Pierre and Deputy Political Leader of the UNC I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of my former Parliamentary Colleague Fazal Karim.
Fazal Karim was an innovator, he was driven to make a difference in our national landscape & committed to progressing our society.
I had the experience of serving with him not only in our Parliament but he was the line Minister while I served as the Chairman of the MIC Institute of Technology.
Fazal left his mark on the technical and vocational sector of our country. Led by Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, as Minister of Tertiary Education and Skills Training Fazal Karim instituted some of the most dynamic reforms to technical training in our nation which benefited hundreds of young people.
We will always remember his famous words “from cutting cane to flying plane” when he launched the Aviation Institute which was geared to train students not only in Aviation studies but in various areas including rigging operations, system functions, radio/radar systems and pneumatics/hydraulics. It was the first of its kind in the Caribbean, a project aimed at opening up the field of aviation to all who had a dream of entering this industry.
Another of his revolutionary projects was the launch of the National Energy Skills Centre (NESC) Drilling Academy with a rig for training. This was geared not only to creating a more skilled labour force for our energy sector but it was aimed at training our Youth to be a direct part of this nation’s backbone industry, the energy sector.
Fazal understood that the greatest resource of this nation was our Youth and he was determined to nurture, grow & develop our Youth.
He made an invaluable contribution serving our party as General Secretary and will always be remembered for his dedication to T&T.
My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife Mrs. Judy Karim, his children Rhonda, Ria and Rhion as well as all loved ones.
David Lee
Member of Parliament
Pointe a Pierre
