President Alvi urges students to acquire marketable skills & serve the country with compassion

ISLAMABAD, Dec 12, (SABAH): President Dr. Arif Alvi has urged the student delegation from Balochistan to continue to gain knowledge and acquire marketable skills by tapping traditional and online resources of knowledge, and using the acquired knowledge to serve the country and its people with compassion and observing moral and ethical values. He added that quality leadership, timely decisions, learning from the past, benchmarking the best and proven practices, and overcoming issues and crises by setting KPIs would help the country to overcome its financial and economic issues.

President Dr. Arif Alvi expressed these views while talking to the students and staff of the Cadet College, Killa Saifullah, who called on him, at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Monday. Talking to the students, the President said that knowledge and continuous learning were very important to build a comprehensive, well-groomed and balanced personality, however, observance of morals and ethical values, care for elders, love for the young ones, developing compassion and sympathy for the less fortunate and exploring out-of-the-box solutions to existing and emerging issues were also required to build a healthy and prosperous society. The President said that Pakistan had great potential in terms of both its natural and human resources. He said that Pakistan created a nuclear deterrent in a short period to counter the hugely disproportional conventional weapons of our neighbour and created a much-needed peace in the region. He said that we also succeeded in defeating the scourge of terrorism from our country, which no other nation even a superpower could not achieve with desired outcomes. He said that we also hosted 4 million Afghan refugees, who had to leave their country due to war and violence for 40 years.

 President Dr. Arif Alvi said that problems faced by the nation could be resolved by self-discipline, virtues of humbleness, modesty and simplicity, avoiding arrogance, egoism and developing and maintaining human relation connections relations imbibed with ethical and moral values, and curbing backbiting, and desisting from spread of fake and unverified news, which were essential to develop a healthy society. He said that tangible and time-bound steps needed to be taken to bring 22 million out-of-school children into schools, besides ensuring the inclusion of 10% differently-abled population (DAPs) into the mainstream as useful and productive citizens. The President said that Pakistan was blessed with a vast coastline but unfortunately our exports of fisheries and related products were low compared to other countries. He said that preserving sea life and the ecosystem, using better nets, and ensuring that sea resources were used in a scientific and sustainable manner, would not only increase our exports but also help in earning sustainable income for the people of coastal areas.

President Dr. Arif Alvi said that the stakeholders in the higher education system should make tangible efforts to increase the number of students enrolled in higher institutions as currently, only 9% of our students had access to higher education compared to 20 to 25% in our neighbouring countries. This, he said, was one of the factors hampering the progress of our country as compared to other countries in the region. The President also called upon the college management to train cadets in new technology trends like the Internet of Things, Robotics, Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence, which were going to have vast applications in in every sphere of life. The establishment of Cadet College Killa Saifullah was announced on 18th December 2004. The College became functional on 17th April 2009. The College’s 90 seats are given to the students from the Province of Balochistan with a token representation of other provinces.

Meanwhile President Dr. Arif Alvi has emphasized the need for uniform, comprehensive and all-inclusive facilitation of Differently-abled Persons (DAPs) for their registration with NADRA and issuance of identity cards, provision of healthcare facilities, assessment of their disability level and its nature in a hassle-free manner. He added that DAPs were very equal members of society and their inclusiveness was essential for developing a strong and healthy society.

President Dr. Arif Alvi expressed these views during a briefing, given by Chairman NADRA, Mr Muhammad Tariq Malik, on issues pertaining to the registration of persons with disabilities (PWDs), at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Monday. During the meeting, the President urged the need for a comprehensive and inclusive awareness campaign at the national and provincial levels to eliminate discrimination against DAPs in society and to remove stigmas and stereotypes attached to PWDs. He also called for granting complete access to PWDs in mainstream educational institutions without any discrimination or non-professional treatment. He further said that training institutions should take steps for the inclusion of DAPs, and devise special curricula and techniques for their skill development. He said that employers should factor in their disabilities and create special jobs for PWDs, besides providing them with Assistive Technology so that their full potential could be realized.

President Dr. Arif Alvi said that the medical board to assess the disability of the DAPs across Pakistan should have the same terms of reference, procedures and forms. He appreciated NADRA for giving free-of-cost services to DAPs, establishing exclusive counters for PWD, and creating barrier-free access in most of its centres across the country for DAPs for all services. The President also emphasized the need for creating awareness of different incentives and schemes offered for DAPs at various levels, including stipends under the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) for DAPs, discounted entry at Metro Bus Service, BRT Peshawar, railways and PIA so that DAPs could avail these services and enhance their productivity. The President also appreciated the issuance of Juvenile cards by NADRA and also urged the need to create plastic-based cards for DAPs from ages 5 to 9 years, which would be useful for DAPs and would be easy to keep. He said that the best practices developed by NADRA to facilitate PWDs, and the best practices of other federal institutions in providing services to DAPs should be shared with all the provinces at all levels for their duplication to provide better facilities to DAPs. He also appreciated NADRA for maintaining a record of around 6 lacs registered PWDs, adding that this ratio needed to be increased.

President Dr. Arif Alvi said that unfortunately DAPs continue to face a wide array of issues including the lack of wheelchair-friendly ramps, screen readers, Braille, signage and employment opportunities and stressed the need for all relevant stakeholders to take measures to extend the benefits of the modern and Assistive Technology to support the DAPs.