SWABI, Feb 7: Special adviser to the prime minister and former chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Dr Ishfaq Ahmad, has said that modern scientific knowledge, not war weapons, make a nation great.

He was speaking at the concluding ceremony of the All Pakistan Science Fair 2005 at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKIEST) on Monday. The fair was organised by the Science Society of the GIKIEST. Students from leading universities and institutes from all over the country participated in the fair.

Dr Ishfaq said that modern education, especially scientific knowledge, was a decisive factor in the progress and prosperity of a state. Knowledge, he said, was the prime factor in strengthening a country's economy and its position in the comity of nations. Those who lag behind in education sector experience numerous problems, he added.

"Our future progress", he said "is linked with achievements and result-oriented research of young scientists and they must effect breakthrough in the scientific field".

He lauded the role of PAEC and Higher Education Commission in scientific fields and said the nation needed to acquire excellence in science and technology.

Comparing the past of the country with its present, he said although the nation had covered a considerable ground in the field of physics but, keeping in view the research done in the developed world, particularly in neighbouring countries, there was a need to motivate and encourage the young because they had potential to reach new horizons.

Highlighting importance of physics in a nation's life, he said it was one of the most important subjects of science and it was quite difficult for a country to become powerful without substantial achievements in the field of physics.