President Mamnoon Hussain Wednesday said the Pakistani nation is strong and united and all attempts by its overt and covert enemies to create dissent and lawlessness in Balochistan would foil miserably.
Addressing the 9th convocation of the Sardar Bahadur Khan University, he said a handful of vested interests and some enemies of Pakistan were trying to stop the people of Balochistan benefit from their resource-rich province and to gain from the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
However, he said, the people of Balochistan were fully aware of all such conspiracies and united in thwarting all such ventures. He said the people of Balochistan were true Pakistanis and would not let anyone threaten the solidarity of the country.
The president said the country's national political leadership was fully cognizant of the challenges confronting the country; particularly in Balochistan, and said it was working hard to address those issues.
He said the religious, political leaders of the province needed to rise above their petty differences and get better awareness about regional and international issues.
He said it would give them a better understanding of the regional politics and help them tackle future challenges.
Mamnoon said the role of young generation of Balochistan was all the more critical as they were the future of the country and needed to stand united to take their province forward on path of progress and prosperity.
He cited the founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah who said Balochistan is the future of Pakistan and its youth are its builders. He said with the CPEC becoming operational, numerous opportunities, in diverse fields would become available.
He said the youth of the province needed to be adept in new subjects, learn sciences, get training in hotel industry, tourism and promote their rich culture.
The president said he had cut down the expenses of the Aiwan-e-Sadr and diverted the funds to National University of Modern Languages (NUML) to set up a campus at Gwadar for teaching of Chinese language.
He said the CPEC would create numerous employment opportunities and business activities for the people of Balochistan and said they needed to get prepared to optimally benefit from the project as it would open up the province to the world.
He said he was very pleased to attend the convocation at the Sardar Bahadur Khan University as the education of women was a subject very close to his heart.
He particularly lauded the sacrifices of the students of the university, who fell victim to a terrorist incident, and said they would long be remembered.
He also lauded the teachers and parents for their efforts and hard work and congratulated the students on their success.