ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that making Pakistan a self-reliant country and an emerging global power is the main goal of the present government.

The prime minister stated this while presiding over the final session of a national seminar on “Resetting and Rebooting Pakistan’s ICT Sector” at the National Defence University (NDU) here on Wednesday.

According to an official handout issued by the PM Office, the seminar was also attended by Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, Sindh Governor Imran Ismael and NDU president Lt Gen Muhammad Saeed.

In his concluding rema­rks, the prime minister stated that the ICT (Information and Communication Tech­nology) sector held great potential for employment generation and revenue earnings. He emphasised on skills enhancement of the country’s young population. “Our government’s goal is a self-reliant Pakistan that will emerge as a global power,” the prime minister said.

Besides industry representatives, the seminar was also participated by national and international prominent ICT experts and senior military and civil officers.

PM Khan assured full facilitation to all ICT stakeholders for providing an enabling and supportive regulatory environment from the government. He appreciated the NDU for arranging seminar on the ICT sector.

The director general of Institute for Strategic Studies, Research and Analysis of the NDU presented recommendations of the seminar.

One of the participants of the seminar told Dawn that both the army chief and the prime minister also attended a proactive question-answer session and responded to the queries. He said the prime minister recalled that Pakistan made tremendous progress in the 1960s in various sectors, but after the 1970s due to a change in the mindset the country could not keep up the pace of progress, particularly in the research sector.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2020