‘Youth holds key to country’s transformation’

President stresses power of education in shaping country’s destiny

ISLAMABAD:

President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday said through the combination of education, intellect and morality, the youth could change the fate of the country.

He said Pakistan needed leadership and proper use of intellect more than the solutions, which he believed the youth of the country was fully capable of playing this role.

Addressing the convocation of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), the president said Chinese development was made on the basis of education and health, and Pakistan also needed to follow the Chinese model to achieve the goals of rapid development.

Citing the example of Vietnam which was destroyed during the war in 1973, the president said that in 1999, the fisheries export of both Vietnam and Pakistan was US$300 million had now been increased to around $11 billion a year in 2022 against Pakistan’s export of only $500 million. “Resources do not develop the countries, education does,” he added.

Calling the successful graduates of the university as elite of the country, the president said they were elite because they had the privilege to secure a graduate degree in a country where 44% or more than 26 million children were still out of school.

While comparing with the region, he said all the regional countries had a 98% ratio of school-going children. “Some 55,000 schools have been built in the country so far, while to accommodate all out-of-school children, the government will have to build 50,000 more schools which is not an easy task keeping in view the resource availability in the country,” he added.

He pointed out that around 300,000 mosques in the country could be utilised to educate out-of-school children.

President Alvi regretted that the developed world was claiming to be the champion of democracy and humanity had lost the sense of sympathy with humankind.

He said the world was now running on vested interests, as zero sympathies were being shown by the West amid the atrocities being done on innocent people of Gaza.

He said Pakistan was hoping to get the Kashmir issue resolved by using the United Nations platform but despite passing over 70 years, the issue was still unresolved. “If the exploitation of wealth ends in the world and every person gets its due right, the killing of the people will automatically be stopped,” the president remarked.

He advised the successful graduates of the university to continue their struggle to seek knowledge in their practical lives. He also asked the women graduates not to spoil their education while sitting at home after getting married.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2024.