ISLAMABAD, Feb 21: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that without providing justice and equal opportunities to all to grow, Pakistan cannot progress and restore its pride outside the country.

“Dishonesty is the biggest problem of Pakistan and the dedication is lacking to achieve anything,” he further stated.

Speaking at the convocation ceremony of the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS) here on Thursday, he said that uprightness and truthfulness were lacking at the national level and human qualities were found missing over the last decade.

The president regretted that Pakistanis who had their big names and respect in the Middle East for working hard were no more wanted and now the Indians were holding important positions there because of working with dedication.

Why people in the Middle East bank on Indians, he asked and said it was because of their performance and not for any change in the policy or special love for them.

He said the “old generation has failed” and now the new generation will have to strive to restore the pride of the country and put Pakistan on the path of development.

The president said he was happy to note that today there existed some of the very good institutions which could be compared with those of the developed countries. In this regard, he mentioned PIEAS and said it was imparting quality education and producing very fine and talented scientists.

“In the sea of hopelessness this PIEAS is an island of prestige and honour,” he said, regretting that Pakistan was not the exception as the Muslim countries were far behind in all major fields, including science and technology. This issue, he said, he had raised in the OIC ministerial committee (COMSTEC) meeting, just concluded in Islamabad.

“It appears that we Muslims do not exist on the world map. We are the most illiterate and backward,” the president observed. In the human development, he said, the Muslims had been left behind and this was an area which needed focussed approach.

He said that standard of education will have to be raised in Pakistan and that without higher education, there was no scope of increased science and technological activities.

The president was of the view that Pakistan has to rise economically through the development of science and technology and that industrialisation would only take place when Pakistan progressed in leaps and bounds by conducting higher research in major scientific fields.

The president said that Pakistan needed to substantially increase its exports and reduce its imports by going into import substitution.

Gen Pervez Musharraf said that Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and biotechnology will have to be major disciplines which needed seriously concentration for achieving progress and development and eventually improving the economy.

He regretted that the entire Muslim ummah was producing 350 PhD doctors while only in Great Britain thousands of such PhD doctors were coming out of universities every year.

However, he said that according to new strategy, there will be at least 500 Phd doctors every year in Pakistan.

“We need to build the capacity in all major fields so that people should not leave Pakistan rather those who are living abroad should come back by finding more opportunities to grow here,” he said.

Later, the president announced Rs50,000 and Rs25,000 each for those students who got gold medals and certificates respectively in various faculties.

The convocation was also addressed by Chairman Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PEAC) Dr Pervaiz Butt and other senior authorities of the PIEAS.