Minister of State Engr Muhammad Bligh Ur Rehman attended 18th All Pakistan inter university Declamation Contest for the Award of Allama Iqbal shield at HEC today. Minister of State said that it is a great pleasure and privileged to be here at the concluding ceremony of this auspicious occasion. Nothing occupies the higher priority within the government than the development and well being of our youth, stated the Minister. Our youth is the real asset and they are going to play a key role in the progress of the country.
Talking on the occasion, Minister of State said that HEC conducts this contest every year to encourage the students to get engage in healthy and beneficial activities. Such contests are not only helpful for enhancing the communication skills but they also inculcate the deeper knowledge of the socio-economic and political issues of the country. I would like to congratulate all the participants for participating in the contest, to me all of you are winner because you have reached this stage, said the Minister. Moreover he directed the chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar to increase the prizes of the top three positions in the contest from 60k, 50k, and 40k respectively to 1 lac, 75k and 50k respectively.
Minister of State said that I would like to take advantage of this gathering to say a few things to you. When we attend such competitions/contests we get to hear so many negative and pessimists thoughts about our very own country by our very own youth, which is very disheartening, lamented the Minister. We must point out and try to rectify whatever we feel, is going wrong in our society but that does not mean that we should overlook whatever good is happening in Pakistan. I admire the role of media but here I must tell them that instead of portraying bad news all the time it is high time that they should start focusing on the positive news as well, emphasized the minister. Never get disappointed in life, as it’s sinful to be hopeless according to our religion. By giving the example of “Half Glass theory”, Minister of State said that a pessimist can never succeed in life; even if you are born in worst circumstances you should never ever lose hope and faith.
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Because your thinking defines the course you take so keep up your faith and don’t lose your heart in the way, advised the Minister.
Minister of State said that things are improving; tax to GDP ratio has been improved which would eventually improve the budget of education in coming years, democracy is flourishing, institutions have started working in their domains efficiently, law and order has got better; one can see it from the example of Karachi.
Chairman HEC Dr. Muhkatr also cleared the misconception of the recent news that has been going on regarding the QS ranking which declared Pakistan’s higher education system to be the weakest in the world. He said that there were few criteria on which that ranking came out namely; accessibility, per capita income, and government funding etc. so we need to understand this phenomena that in comparison to developed or even developing countries we are a nascent nation which has just started spending on higher education 3-4 years back, and we will take our good time to reach their level. Although I am quite thankful to the government which has doubled our budget to Rs. 79 billion along with the additional grant from Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning and Development of Rs. 6.5 billion, so now we have the budget of Rs 85 Billion which is remarkable, said the chairman. He also said that instated of focusing on all the bad things happening to the education sector, we must look towards the positive avenues as well. He told that award of 3G i.e. Global Good Governance by Global Donor Forum is going to be given to Pakistan today at Istanbul, Turkey. Moreover he said that we have also bagged the Asia Pacific Quality Network award at Fiji today. So good news are coming in and things are not that bleak as they are being portrayed, said the Chairman.
In the end, Minister of State distributed the awards and certificates to the participants and the winners.
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