Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday said that Pakistan is a responsible nuclear state and desires friendly relations with all the neighbouring countries including India. Talking to newsmen, after inaugurating National University of Sciences and Technology (Nust) campus here, the Prime Minister outrightly dismissed that Pakistan faced isolation after Mumbai attacks.
He said the global community efforts to defuse Pak-India tensions bore testimony to the fact that Pakistan holds a respectable status in the comity of nations. "Pakistan wants good relations with all the neighbouring countries being member of OIC and Saarc," he said, adding that he held conversation with India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and assured him of Pakistan's full co-operation in probe into Mumbai incident if evidences are provide.
Gilani appreciated the efforts of friendly countries for resumption of normal relations between Pakistan and India. To a question about situation on western borders, Gilani said neither they want anybody to violate Pakistan's territorial sovereignty in the name of terrorism nor any one would be allowed to use Pakistani soil for any act of terrorism against others.
About the people of tribal areas, he said that they are patriot and have actively contributed to the Quaid's struggle for an independent Pakistan but a handful of people intending to destabilise Pakistan would not be allowed to accomplish their nefarious motives. He said that tribal people are protectors of borders but few miscreants are challenging the writ of the government. They would be defeated with full force.
The Prime Minister said that Pakistan also wants peace in Afghanistan because this would enable repatriation of over 3.5 million Afghan refugees to their homeland. Earlier, speaking at the ceremony, the Prime Minister said government has allocated over Rs 24 billion or 10 percent of the PSDP for education sector during the current fiscal year and that is the manifestation of government's priorities. He said the government intends to allocate four percent of GPD for promotion of education.
Meanwhile, in a statement the Prime Minister said that science and technology has profoundly influenced the country's economy and culture, adding that the government would provide maximum support to well-conceived educational projects. The Prime Minister said in the new millennium, knowledge has become the most reliable instrument of measuring development and prosperity of any nation.
He termed Nust a befitting place for knowledge seekers, and said the institution had made everyone proud by joining the ranks of top 400 out of around 30,000 universities of the world. "It is a great achievement and very heartening news for the people who want the best quality higher education in Pakistan," he said.
Gilani urged Nust and all other universities to undertake the need-based research to find out solutions to the problems confronted by the society and economy. Being the university's chancellor, the Prime Minister said he was pleased to know that since its inception in 1991, the Nust had produced 9,500 graduates including 11 PhDs and 1300 MS and MPhil degree holders.
He said the President of Pakistan being patron-in-chief of the university was also very keen in the progress of Nust, which serves as a lighthouse towards the promotion of higher scientific education in the country. The Prime Minister said Pakistan's demographics having 100 million people below the age of 25, can deliver a remarkable dividend, provided developed in the most right way.
"It is however very unfortunate that only one of every five Matriculates makes it to the university in our country. We have therefore the challenge to equip these young men and women with best kind of professional education and skills," he added.
"My government's seven-point 'Roadmap to the Better Future of Pakistan' aims at improving access to education, including higher education in the universities," he said. He said measures were also envisioned to overcome gender, rural-urban and regional disparities, for which there was plan to increase the budget allocation to at least four percent of the GNP. He said the expenditure on higher education would be enhanced substantially.
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