LAHORE, Jan 13: Punjab Literacy Minister Dr Muhammad Shafiq Chaudhry has urged non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to help the government achieve 100 per cent literacy in the country.

He was addressing the literacy forum of NGOs working for the promotion of literacy and education in Punjab on Saturday.

He said the literacy rate could be increased if the people worked with a missionary zeal to dissemination of knowledge. He said that while the concept of setting up NGOs was new in Pakistan yet there had been various private organisations run by spirited people and philanthropists for the promotion of education in the sub-continent like the Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam and Anjuman-i-Islamia, which had established educational institutions in Punjab. There were other similar organisations in other parts of the sub-continent, which had been promoting the cause of education without the government support. He said that the very first revelation of the holy Quran started with the word “Iqra” which means “Read.”

This was the first message of Allah to the people delivered to the mankind through the holy Prophet (peace be upon him). The revelation makes it obligatory to the believers to read and spread it to the entire mankind. The importance of literacy and education could not be more emphasised than the condition laid down by the holy Prophet (peace upon him) after the Battle of Badar for the release of the prisoners who would teach at least 10 children of the faithful.

This was the Islamic message of promoting literacy. He appreciated that a number of NGOs were working for the promotion of literacy and hoped that they would join hands with the government to achieve their objectives. He said that eradication of illiteracy was a big challenge for him.

Earlier, the former chairman of the National Literacy Commission and Literacy Forum president Inayatullah said that about 60 million out of a population of 160 million were illiterate in Pakistan. It was a formidable number and the government and civil society needed concentrated efforts to reduce the number and achieve the maximum literacy in the country, which was one the countries at the lowest rung of the literacy ladder in the world.