August 30, 2007	Thursday	Sha'aban 16, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: Education is a must to properly capitalise the country’s existing human resources for a better and prosperous Pakistan. “We have to educate our people if we want to prosper,” Speaker National Assembly Chaudhry Amir Hussain said while addressing an award ceremony of the Sarhad University of Science and Information Technology here on Wednesday.

The speaker said that a major part of the country’s population was under 25, which was the real capital of the country.

The speaker said that like Indonesia, China and Malaysia, Pakistan too has great human resources potential, however, there was a dire need that they were preserved by providing proper education to the youth.

He said there could not be two opinions about the importance of education as no country could progress without educating its people. The advanced countries had achieved the goal of development by educating their people.

The government has been working to enhance the capacity of the human resources, he said and stressed the need for further strengthening the institutions and enhancing the standard of teaching in public and private sector institutes.

Mr Hussain said that the private sector had been playing vital role in providing quality education to the people.

He lauded the role of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) saying that it played an excellent role in strengthening institutions of higher education. The HEC has considerably widened research in the educational institutions in collaboration with industrial enterprises and reputable research organisations.

“Now universities in Pakistan conduct quality research,” he claimed.

Advising the students, the speaker said there was no short cut to success in life. He urged them to work hard with dedication and sincerity.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Salimur Rehman highlighted salient features of the university. He said the university started functioning in 2001 with only 68 students enrolled adding that the number of enrolled students stands at 1,000 currently.

He said that university’s current regular faculty strength was about 70 of which 13 professors were PhD. He said faculty-student ratio at bachelors level was 19:1 which he said would be brought to 15:1 adding that the ratio at masters level stands at 8:1.

Earlier, the speaker, gave away certificates and awards to the position-holder of distant students and congratulated them for excelling in the examinations.—Agencies