‘Role of youth imperative for country’s development’

Rawalpindi: The challenges being faced by the country can be countered by inculcating youth in national affairs. The young graduates must contribute their role in practical fields for the country’s prosperity and stability. This was remarked by the Governor Punjab, Sadar Saleem Haider Khan while delivering his speech at the 1st Convocation of the Rawalpindi Woman University (RWU), which was held here on Tuesday. He said that everyone should value the country which has the honour of being the sole nuclear country in the Islamic world.

"Our enemy wants to create division among us on the basis of ethnicity, but together we will not allow anyone to succeed in such a malicious conspiracy against the country", he said. The governor while congratulating the graduating students highlighted the responsibilities they would have to render in their future. He underlined the need for collaborative efforts by all the stakeholders towards improvement in diverse fields including the national economy.

The governor stressed for further enhancing the women’s role in national development and said " The majority position holders in the university education are our daughters which is encouraging towards creating gender equity in the society". He extended his felicitations to the parents of the graduating students saying it was a special day for them. "Parents have surely faced the difficulties and sacrificed to get their daughters graduated today.

I salute and present my tribute to them", he said and urged the students to generously respond to their parents in the days to come. He further urged the parents to allow and encourage their daughters to contribute their efforts for the country’s peace and stability. The governor also expressed his pleasure of attending the event for being the first chancellor on the university’s first convocation.

He hoped for the further flourishing of the university in future. In his address, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad, Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) informed the audience that HEC''s journey to take higher education at new heights since 2002 has been successful. He said that are 265 universities in Pakistan with 13 per cent students’ access rate as compared to that of in 2002 having 51 universities with an access rate of 2.1 per cent.

He further highlighted that presently 48% of the total students in the universities were female students which was 32 per cent in 2002. Moreover, 40,000 research papers are published each year, which were only 865 per year in 2002, he added. Dr. Mukhtar highlighted that financial crisis, reduced funds to the universities and provincial devolution of the higher education were the main challenging areas to be redressed to further explore the young talent.

“The total budget of all universities of Pak is less than that of a single university of any other country,” he said. The chairman further underlined the need to start a special period in the university classes regarding ethics and social norms. “Misuse of technologies like mobiles has contributed much in wrongdoing instead of fruitful results,” he said and urged the teachers to produce virtue professionals.

“We need not the professionals only, but behaviorally good professionals,” he added. She said that the university remained in efforts to be equipped with latest learning methodologies, improving technical aspects and adopting the imperative trends and techniques in education. "We have 2 national and 42 international MoUs with a number of universities", she added. Dr. Anila congratulated the graduating students and their parents on successful completion of their education career in the university.

Later, the governor Punjab, Sardar Saleem Haider Khan awarded the medals to students showing outstanding academic performance and the degrees among the graduating students. In the first convocation of Rawalpindi Women University, degrees were issued to a total of 847 graduating students from the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences. 10 students were awarded gold medals, 09 female students received silver medals, 13 graduates were awarded with the certificates for securing 3rd and 4th positions and 26 graduating students were awarded with the Roll of Honour.