ISLAMABAD, Apr 4 (APP):Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday while breaking ground for the first ever public sector university for Hyderabad here, said that no country could achieve progress and security, without educating its people particularly the youth.
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Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of the university here at the PM Office, he said out of 210 million population of Pakistan, 60 percent people were below 30 years of age. The youth could uplift the country if they were educated properly and they could also do otherwise, if kept deprived of education.
The event was attended by Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood, Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi, Law Minister Barrister Firough Nasim, IT Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Privatization Minister Mohammedmian Soomro, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, and party leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Muttahida Qaumi Movement, besides a huge number of people from Hyderabad.
He said education and justice were the key pillars of a successful society. Particularly, he highlighted the importance of higher and technical education to help create employment opportunities.
The prime minister, who earlier unveiled the plaque of the project, congratulated the people of Hyderabad over the groundbreaking of the university and assured all out support to the ministry concerned for its completion.
He said the previous government focused merely on the construction of roads, but he believed that after getting education, the people could help build the country’s infrastructure.
He said Holy Prophet Muhammd (PBUH) offered the war prisoners to teach ten Muslims each against their release, because he realized the importance of education. He said the Holy Prophet did so because he knew that education provided the real security to any nation.
He said the budget of Singapore University was more than that of all the universities of Pakistan. He said as Singapore focused more on higher education and knowledge economy, its exports surged to $330 billion against $240 million by Pakistan.
He said Namal University of Mianwali had focused on technical education that was why 92 percent of its graduates got jobs soon after completion of their education. He said despite coming from Urdu medium background, record 55 percent of the Namal graduates got first divisions and obtained Bradford degrees.
He questioned as instead of supporting the projects, why some people were resisting the establishment of university in Hyderabad city.
He said another private sector university was being set up in Sohawa area of Jhelum to exclusively teach Science and Sufism, where research would be conducted on the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
He said owing to the dearth of religious scholars, Pakistan could not befittingly argue with the western world after the publication of blasphemous contents against the Holy Prophet. However, he said after the government raised the issue effectively, the European Union court ruled against recurrence of such blasphemous act in the name of freedom of expression.
The prime minister also discouraged the tendency of speaking English in the presence of Urdu speaking audience which he viewed created inferiority complex among non-English speaking majority of the country.
Speaking high of the federal ministers from MQM, the prime minister said Firough Nasim and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui were among the most decent cabinet members.
He hoped that PTI and MQM enjoyed commonality of views on public issues and hoped that the two parties could contest future election jointly.
Law Minister Firough Nasim said PTI and MQM were on same page for the establishment of university in Hyderabad and those opposing it were naive to Islam which started revealing with the word ‘Iqra’ (Read).
Shafqat Mehmood told the audience that the HEC had forwarded Rs 2 billion project of the university to the ministry concerned. The charter of university was also with the law ministry for consideration. He hoped that the matters related to the acquisition of land would also be resolved soon, he added.
Governor Sindh Imran Ismail said with the establishment of the university, the longstanding demand of the MQM as well as the people of Hyderabad would stand fulfilled. He said the ministry concerned had agreed to provide the land of the Civil Aviation for the university.
IT Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said the groundbreaking of the university gave hope to the people of Pakistan particularly Hyderabad which had been fighting for its right to higher education for the last seven decades.