ISLAMABAD, July 25: To overcome the existing difficulties, we as a nation must concentrate on building reliable and efficient manpower and seriously take up the challenge of building Pakistan.

This was stated by the minister for labour, manpower and overseas Pakistanis, Owais Ghani, who was the chief guest at the Mohammad Ali Jinnah University on Thursday.

He inaugurated the Placement Centre at the university, established with the objective of acting as a liaison between industry and the university for employment of students in the corporate sector.

The task, he said required grit, imagination the will to stand up and struggle. There is no other easy way given the circumstances.

Events of the past 12 months have tested the mettle of this nation and the lesson from the ordeal is that the only means to survive the harsh world is to possess excellent manpower, he said.

The minister said, we must now as a nation analyse our weaknesses in all fields, including in economics, politics, military as well as technology and shed these disabilities since no country, howsoever friendly, could overlook weaknesses and spare other nations.

He was sure that if Pakistan had not been in possession of nuclear wherewithal it would have been made an omelette during the past year.

Mr Ghani lamented the sense of despondency prevailing in the country. This was the result of dual system of education in which the poor class was neglected and the elitist class got all the advantage, including good education, which made it easy for them to climb up while financially handicapped with indifferent education were deprived.

Calling for a rational education system, which ensured equal opportunities to all sections of the society, he deprecated the disparity created in the society by four per cent elitist group managing control over the power structure of the country.

He insisted that the country must adopt a fair education system, which was the only tool for building a reliable manpower and create new opportunities through sustained hard work.

In this context the minister quoted a famous couplet from Bahzad Lakhnavi to the effect that one should struggle so hard that the objective one was seeking should present itself to the striving man. He told the students that prosperity did not necessarily lie across the oceans but the man who stayed behind in the country and worked hard would also prosper.

Earlier, Abdullah Shaikh, informed the seminar that the Placement Centre had achieved success in inviting prestigious organizations to come to the university and interviewed 40 students. About nine students have found employment in large multinationals. The Centre was a step forward in training students in building their career, resume and selling themselves. —Jonaid Iqbal