Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor, Barrister Masood Kausar has said that teaching is the most honourable profession and to ensure its dignity, the civilised nations always respect their educational institution by extending respect to their respective teaching communities. Visiting educational institutions, he added, always make him proud, as it offers him to meet learned people.
Addressing the Convocation 2012 of University of Peshawar at its premises on Tuesday, the Governor who is also the Chancellor of the University stressed the need to bring the institutions of higher learning in our country too to a level where they come upto the expectations. The society, he remarked, itself need to contribute in a big way and to make this possible, let us not expect for everything from the government.
In all more than 481 graduates, eleven each were honoured with Ph.D and M.Phil degrees while the rest bagged masters in almost thirty disciplines and amongst them 31 were awarded gold medals for achieving distinctive positions.
Referring to the confronting challenges, the Governor said, ensuring establishment of a tolerant society is indeed the biggest challenge and there is a need that the institutions of higher learning must make them open for wisdom oriented deliberations and contribute significantly for betterment of the nation. Being Muslims, he added, it is our firm belief that the Religion of Islam has the capacity to meet every challenge of the time and now it is upto the scholars that how they ensure protection of constitutional and moral rights of the people. "Individuals could never be allowed to impose their own agenda and this is the aim for which we as a nation have been offering sacrifices for quite some time", the Governor said.
The Governor also highlighted the importance of economic development and said, "we live in an age where knowledge has become more important to economies and societies and the rapidly circulating capitals and knowledge are replacing as tools of economic growth and increasingly becoming foundations for prosperity and social mobility. Making research and educational studies more relevant to contemporary requirements, he added, has become imperative to bring change in outlook of the standards of higher education and learn from the past mistakes to make our workings relevant to current demands. Promotion of workable academia - industry linkages, he said, is prime responsibility of higher educational institutions and there is a need to avail the potential of youth learning at the campuses.
The Governor also appreciated the management of the University of Peshawar for taking steps in collaboration with FATA Secretariat and Tribal Areas Chamber of Commerce and Industry for exploration, development and utilisation of natural resources in FATA. Referring to certain points raised by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Dr Qibla Ayaz.
The Governor pointed out that situation developed in wake of 18th Amendment has indeed led to generate a changed environment especially in respect of financial requirements of the universities. He also assured to take up the stance of the public sector universities both at the provincial and federal level and get their apprehensions amicably resolved.