President General Pervez Musharraf has emphasised the need for nurturing talent of younger generations and enhancing the quality of human resources in the knowledge-driven world to make Pakistan a powerful and developed country.
He was speaking at a function in Aiwan-e-Sadr on Wednesday held for the winners of All Pakistan Website Development Competition whose theme was 'Know my Pakistan'.
The President said there were two basic ingredients of power potential of a nation, namely the population, and the quality of its human resources. He said: "Pakistan is a nation of 150 million people, and we must enhance the quality of our human resources to have a prominent place in the economy driven world."
He said that knowledge was essential for development of the economy. In this connection he particularly mentioned information technology, saying that future of a country that wants to progress depends upon it. He added that "we must go for promoting information technology and for e-commerce and e-government".
The President said: "We can take Pakistan forward in every field through promoting science and technology which is key to development and economic stride of a nation."
He said that Pakistan is a great nation and everyone should be proud of it. "The need is to exploit all its potential". He said that the younger generation "needs to know more" about its own country which is unique in terms of diversity of temperature, history, culture and civilisation.
He said that the country's history "stretches back to 8,000 years", and referred to the civilisation of Taxila, Indus, Ghandara and Harrapa. He said that keeping in view the history, culture, civilisation and a variety of Pakistan's terrain Pakistan could attract maximum number of tourists.
Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi in his address said that it was an innovative competition organised by National University of Modern Languages. The competition, he said, was first launched within the provinces and, then among the provinces to select the best possible website.
The President gave away shields and cash prizes to the winners of the competition. St Mary Academy, Lalazar, Rawalpindi, got the First prize, Islamabad College of Girls, F-6/2 Sector, secured Second position, and Jameel Public School and College Mingora, Swat, stood Third.
The Fourth position went to St Bonaventure High School, Hyderabad. Earlier, the President was shown the websites developed by the position winners, their websites highlighting all information about Pakistan's culture, geography, history and varied nature of terrain.