President stresses upon exploring full potential of youth

President stresses upon exploring full potential of youth
APP01-27 ISLAMABAD: December 27 - President Mamnoon Hussain addressing the 17th Convocation Of National Defence University. APP

ISLAMABAD, Dec 27 (APP):President Mamnoon Hussain on Wednesday emphasized upon harnessing full innate potential of the
country’s youth as they possess immense energies and leadership abilities for future ventures in the
field of research.

Speaking at 17th convocation of National Defence University (NDU), the President expressed his
pleasure that about 60 per cent of country’s population comprised youth which, he said, bode well
for the future of the country.

The educational institutions and think-tanks should share the responsibility to fully discover this
potential by streamlining youths’ capabilities in a better manner. They should also step forward
to present feasible suggestions in this regard, he added.

He said issues like terrorism were linked with unemployment and with an effective strategy, these
issues could be tackled and stressed upon provision of employment opportunities for the youth.

The President noted that for the country’s solidarity and stability, people from all schools of thought
should be involved in the decision-making process so that the country could be guided with
consensus and solid proposals.

He said, today the whole world including Pakistan had been facing myriad of issues and the reason
behind this is lack of clarity by the people with different faiths and beliefs, residing in various parts
of the world to reach a conclusion on how to face the emerging challenges of the modern world.
He underscored that the subjects like Islam and modernism, national harmony, governance, conflict
resolution and national security, required thorough discussion.

It is also necessary to include experts from the administrative and defence affairs, educationists,
media, religious scholar and common people in these debates so that people from all walks of life,
could become part of this process.
The President observed that for an effective and comprehensive national strategy, this process was
sine qua non.
He said that only those nations rose to prominence and gained respect who took every citizen of
the state on board regarding formulation of national objectives and setting priorities without succumbing
to internal differences. He suggested that the NDU and other national institutions should promote this
thought.
The universities besides promoting education also served the role of think-tanks, thus these should
make suggestions to the government for the national development and prosperity after painstaking
debate.
The President also voiced his concern on the fact that the country had a large number of trained
and untrained youth who are still unemployed.
The federal government and the provinces have established National Vocational and Technical
Training Commissions which were assisting the youth in exploring job opportunities in the country
and abroad by imparting professional training.
These were the efforts in right direction but the whole nation will have to play its part in order to
deal with this huge challenge.
He called upon NDU and other think-tanks to come forward with proposals to overcome the
issue of unemployment. The President underlined that if the issue of unemployment is resolved,
then the complex issue of extremism will also be defeated to a great extent.
The President also noted that the far flung areas of the country felt sense of deprivation and
pessimism due to certain historic, social and political reasons, which also pave the way for
negative tendencies. It is the responsibility of national institutions to ponder over these issues
so that these areas could be illuminated with the beacon of education and employment opportunities
could be created at their doorsteps, he added.
In this way, the marginalized population of the country would be included in the mainstream by
turning it into a useful and effective part of the society, he added.
On the occasion, the President also gave away gold medals and merit certificates to the position
holders. He also congratulated the students on completing their degrees and hoped that they would
serve the nation with their utmost capacities during the practical life.

President NDU Lt. Gen. Majid Ahsan also gave a briefing regarding the functioning and the role
of university.

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