LAHORE - Punjab University VC Dr Mujahid Kamran has said that only those nations have progressed who have invested in education, creation of new knowledge and training.
He was addressing a conference on ‘Democracy and Governance in Pakistan: Challenges and Opportunities’ organised by PU Pakistan Study Centre at Al Raazi Hall on Wednesday.
Renowned political analyst Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, Dean Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Director PSC Prof Dr Massarrat Abid, Prof Dr Muhammad Waseem, renowned scholars, intellectuals and were present on the occasion.
Citing the example of China, South Korea, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, Dr Mujahid Kamran said that there was no formula to put the nation and country on the road to progress. He said unless the top leadership takes good policy decision in the three sectors, no country could progress. He said that the US was spending 320 to 380 billion dollars “only on research and development”, while Pakistan’s total GDP was 225 billion dollars and the country was spending less than two per cent on education per year.
He said that we were facing the problems because ignorance and lack of knowledge was prevailing at all levels. ‘If politicians would not resolve the issues themselves, the importance of army would increase,” he added.
He appealed to all the political parties to focus on resolving problems of the people. Prof Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi said that the democratic institutions were facing challenges and question was arising that whether political leadership could show capacity of conflict management. He said that in our present circumstances, Parliament and other democratic institutions were looking irrelevant. He said that the present challenge was not new but today’s crisis was most threatening because military was fighting terrorists and needed popular support.
Askari said that our attitudes had become undemocratic which was reflecting in the speeches of political leadership. He said that it was the responsibility of political leadership to resolve the matters and should not provide a chance to military to resolve the problems. Delegates from Lahore, Multan and Bahwalpur presented their researcher paper at the conference, which was attended by a large number of students and faculty members of the university and of various colleges of Lahore.
At the same venue, PSC and Oxford University Press Pakistan also held a book exhibition.