ISLAMABAD, Jan 4: The government should fulfil the needs of the poor students so that they can have equal opportunities of receiving higher education and becoming successful professionals.

This was said by the acting president of Pakistan, Justice Irshad Hasan Khan, on Friday at the inauguration ceremony of Preston Institute of Management Sciences’ Islamabad campus.

“Education is one of the most important areas of social change, where we still need to achieve a great deal”, he said. In Pakistan, over the years, quality education has been the elite’s prerogative, which should be done away with as soon as possible to have a balanced education system.

“Unfortunately, we are running dual education systems in the country, which has created an unbridgeable gulf between the rich and the poor”, Justice Khan said.

He urged the private sector to focus on quality education, specially in the area of higher education where the demand was great, but the available sources limited.

“To have sustainable socio-economic development, job orientated technical education is of utmost importance, and, with the advent of information technology, we were now living in a totally changed world”, the chief justice said.

He said the country was undergoing an extensive IT programme, hence, it had experienced a significant development in the info-tech field.

To achieve a significant place in the comity of nations, Pakistan needs to make a major breakthrough in the field of information technology. This requires qualified and trained manpower, and the public and private sector universities have to jointly meet this great challenge.

The chief justice urged the public sector to pursue the cause of education with a missionary zeal, adding, it had contributed a lot in nation-building task.

Education, he said, should not only meet the needs of the time, but it must also be utilized for the country’s development. The quality of education depends on management, skill and the faculty’s commitment, as well as the thirst for knowledge and “burning the midnight oil”.

Referring to his personal experience, he said, “I came to Pakistan as an orphan, but the present position which I have risen to is only due to my teacher’s hard work”.

Wrapping up his remarks, he underlined the need for certain scrutiny procedures before admission, so that an institute could get the most talented students. He criticized the public sector institutes which, he said, worked only for monetary considerations.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the Preston institute chairman, Dr Abdul Basit, vowed to provide quality education to the students as per international standards.