LAHORE: President Dr Arif Alvi says the Kashmir issue is not attracting due attention of the world powers as India is a huge market and big trading partner of various countries.

“This is the reason the world powers are ignoring morality and principles on the issue,” he said.

Speaking at the 28th gold medal awarding ceremony of Karkunan-e-Tehreek-e-Pakistan, organised by the Tehreek-e-Pakistan Workers Trust at Aiwan-e-Karkunan on Thursday, Dr Alvi praised the sacrifices rendered by the people of Kashmir for their right of self-determination and said Feb 5 would be marked to show full solidarity with them.

The president also called for developing the Pakistan Movement oral history archives as it was highly important for the new generation to be aware of the struggle of the founding fathers. He said the efforts for the oral history archives had been under way in the country for the last 10 to 15 years. He appreciated the available oral history archives in the museum at Minar-i-Pakistan.

Dr Alvi said the National Accountability Ordinance was simple as it only questions the sources of wealth and income. He said collective efforts were required for nation-building besides promoting morality.

Earlier in the day, the president met Governor Chaudhry Sarwar at the Governor House and discussed matters pertaining to governmental affairs and resolving the problems of overseas Pakistanis.

The governor briefed the president on the reforms in universities, more than 1,200 ongoing projects of Punjab Aab-e-Pak Authority and new local government system in Punjab.

The president and the governor expressed sorrow over the martyrdom of military officers and soldiers in terrorism in Balochistan.

VU: Dr Arif Alvi while addressing the faculty members and students at the head office of the Virtual University (VU) stressed the importance of information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI) to meet future challenges.

The president said the world would need about 80 million IT, AI and cyber security experts per annum and Pakistan was only producing 27,000 IT experts. “We should make efforts to produce more experts to meet the needs of the world,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2022