—Says Pakistan is a responsible nuclear State
—Commends Islamabad’s role in Afghanistan’s stability
By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi, on Wednesday, said that Pakistan played a major role in the peace and stability in Afghanistan.
During an interview, the president said the world recognized Pakistan as ‘a peaceful and responsible nuclear state, governed by morality and moral values’.
Pakistan saved Afghanistan from being isolated, he said, during his participation in the ECO summit, he had talked to its members whereas during the extraordinary meeting of the foreign ministers of OIC in Islamabad, Pakistan portrayed an actual picture of the war-torn country.
Contrary to Pakistan’s role, the president said India’s profile was diminishing due to its antics. Today, the world recognized Prime Minister Imran Khan’s initiatives.
The president also stressed upon the adequate training and increased enrollment of students in the IT sector.
He said the AIOU was imparting online education. The Virtual University had granted 48,000 admissions this year. Such mode of education was inexpensive and correlated with the changes taking part at the global level.
The president observed that 10 percent of the youth could not progress to the next levels after doing their intermediate, due to financial constraints and compulsion for jobs.
He said the government was providing 50,000 scholarships to the youth, stressing that online education was the future of the world and through modern initiatives, they could handle the youth bulge.
As Chairman of IT Task Force, the president also held different meetings in this regard and stressed upon skills development and training for the young people.
He said huge transformation was taking place in the IT sector. He projected that country’s IT exports could swell to $8 to 10 billion by the year 2025.
“IT is a new industry of the world which requires a trained youth bulge. The world requires such human resources. Japan, Germany, US and China all require the youth bulge and Pakistan has huge scope in this regard, “he observed.
The president said for the first time, the Higher Education Commission (HEC), on his direction, had framed a policy over online education.
He said that after a number of meetings with the Higher Education Commission and vice-chancellors, the HEC devised a policy to prevent and eradicate drug abuse issue in the universities.
The compulsory committees of the universities were tasked to look into the issue and take certain steps whereas effective legislation was enacted.
President Dr Alvi said through strenuous efforts, they created awareness for the issues confronted by the differentially abled persons.
Physically retarded persons were mentally equal to normal human beings so efforts should be made to ensure their access to public places, he added.
The president said that they should be imparted education with job opportunities so that they could work as independent and earn their livelihood.
About the efficacy of the Federal Ombudsman office, the president said
A public complaint was being resolved within 58 average days period. Decisions were made swiftly over a wide range of complaints arising out of utility bills, CDA, WAPDA, NHA, universities, tax, insurance, banks and federal institutions, women harassment and inheritance rights.
The process required no lawyer and fee. About 150,000 cases had been decided last year.
To another topic, the president observed that minorities were protected in Pakistan and enjoyed equal rights. The executive and judiciary and other organs of states had taken prompt actions in the recent past to protect minorities.
He cited the Sialkot incident and the generous gesture of Sialkot business community for making a donation to widow of slain Sri Lankan national.
Contrary to it, in India, Christians were being targeted besides, Muslims. There was a complete ban on interfaith marriages. Mosques and churches were attacked even Mother Teresa foundation was stopped from collecting foreign funds, he added.
Sharing his retrospection over the bygone year, the president expressed the confidence that the government would succeed in overcoming the financial issues in the post Covid scenario where the world commodities had been hit hard by the global inflation and price hike.
The president expressed the confidence that IT exports, jobs creation and utility of youth bulge of the country would be the main ingredients in this year to turn around the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
He also underlined the need of continuity of keeping a focus on corruption to end this menace forever.
The president viewed that the government’s efforts to take the common man along with its policies was a good omen.
The president sharing his thoughts on the opening of new economic avenue said that in the past political parties inducted people on non-merit basis which resulted in the wrong decisions.
The PTI prior to coming into power had decided against such trends of the past and went ahead to create jobs opportunities in the society through giving boost to exports, IT education and training and incentives for the construction sector, he added.
He said bank loans were being extended to youth entrepreneurs and trainees without any interest. The government had allocated Rs100 billion under Kamyab Nowjawan programme in this year.
The president said involving the youth bulge into economic activities was a good process for improving the country’s economy.
There existed huge opportunities which required public awareness, he added.
He said during Covid 19, the nation showed to the world, a will to survive and overcome the challenge through intellectual talent and achieved great success.
Pakistan achieved great successes during last year, he said, adding from tackling of global pandemic, Pakistan was acknowledged as an organized country. During 2021, the country only recorded 6800 Covid cases.
Across the globe, the pandemic had slowed down the supply and demand system as the containers prices shoot up by seven to eight percent high.
On the other hand, the Pakistani nation showed a will and determination, he observed.
Further highlighting the contours of the government’s successful policy during the previous year, the president said Prime Minister Imran Khan had effectively raised the issue of blasphemy and Islamophobia, which also found way in the recent comments of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The hosting of OIC foreign ministers conference in Islamabad was among the biggest achievements of the country in the last year, he maintained.
The president also reflected upon the efforts made by him and Begum Samina Alvi for the cause of women welfare during the last year, especially issues related to women’s inheritance, breast cancer, implementation of relevant laws and public awareness.
The president said that they made hectic efforts for the women’s inheritance rights as the laws existed in the country, but were not implemented. People often denied these rights to women. The ombudsman office was ensuring the implementation of women’s inheritance rights.
The president also emphasized upon skills training and IT education through which the womenfolk could excel. They could provide online tuition and sell their products to the outer world. In this regard, an encouraging prospect had emerged with Amazon.
He said that mass awareness must be created about banks loans for the women entrepreneurs.
The president also commended tremendous efforts of Begum Samina Ali for the launch of massive public awareness campaign over the breast cancer. Due to these efforts, positive outcome was achieved. Due to these efforts earlier diagnostic of the disease was being made with gradual reduction in the death ratio. Earlier, the issue was treated as social taboo.
The president also expressed his views over the utility of use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and the internet voting.
He also stressed upon the need of grating voting rights to the overseas Pakistanis. He opined that after 10 years, physical voting would end in the world. For the first time in the country’s history, the overseas would be able to cast votes, he expressed the confidence.
