KARACHI, Feb 5: The Sindh governor, Dr Ishratul Ibad, on Saturday said that a trained and educated workforce equipped with the latest knowledge and education played an important role in the development of any nation.

"Fortunately, we are blessed with talented and hardworking youths, who can steer the country out of any crisis provided they are given proper education and training," he said at the '6th All Pakistan Programming and Software Competition', organized by the National University of Emerging Sciences (FAST-NU) at its campus.

The chancellor of FAST-NU, Senator Waseem Sajjad, former vice-chancellor of Karachi University Dr Abdul Wahab, Dr Nazir Ahmed and other educationists were present on the occasion.

Ibad said, "The government is giving unparalleled attention to the promotion of higher education, which is evident from the fact that allocation for higher education was doubled this year as compared to previous years."

"So far the government's efforts have not brought any positive results, but it is hoped that they would ultimately result in bringing about revolutionary changes in the country," he said, stressing that attention had to be paid towards social discipline to achieve better and required results.

"We also need to improve our attitude, behaviour with our elders, with our colleagues, and those who are socially weaker than us to form a civilized and developed society in the country," he added.

The governor urged young students to be aware of the rapidly occurring changes in the fields of science and technology and keep themselves updated with new ideas to face the modern world challenges.

"If we fail to accelerate our pace of progress, we will be left far behind than the rest of the world."

Ibad earlier visited several stalls and examined about various projects. - PPI