Gilani urges intellectuals, religious scholars to unite against retrogressive forces
BHAWALPUR, Feb 21 (APP):Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Monday urged the intellectuals, religious scholars, academia and students to join hands in defeating the retrogressive forces and to preserve Pakistan’s identity and national ethos. Addressing the 58th Founder’s Day of the Sadiq Public School, Gilani said Pakistan was at a decisive phase of its history. “The retrogressive forces are adamant to impose their myopic and narrow-minded agenda,” Prime Minister said and pointed that terrorism and extremism were constituting a daunting challenge to the state and the society.
He termed it a battle of ideas, rather than a physical fight and said; “Through indiscriminate killing of humanity and resort to violence, the forces of conservatism and darkness want to push us to the Stone Age. These bigoted elements are also bringing the fair name of Islam into disrepute,” he warned.
He recalled a quote of Shaheed Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto who said; “An inferior idea can be killed by a superior idea only.”
Prime Minister Gilani asked the educational institutions to launch intellectual Jihad against terrorism and extremism by inculcating the values of respect, moderation, diversity and harmony among its students.
“Our schools, colleges and universities must become the hub of generating fresh and creative ideals. Our great religion, Islam, is a religion of peace and love.”
“We need to emphasize shared values and commonalities instead of highlighting divisions. We owe it to our coming generations to leave a peaceful world for them.”
He said it must be a collective endeavour to promote peace and engage with one anther to foil all conspiracies against humanity and our great religion Islam.
Prime Minister Gilani said political and economic dominance cannot be sustainable unless propped up by educational advancement especially in the field of science and technology.
Gilani said only those individuals and nations can compete in today’s hi-tech environment who have sorted out their national priorities and made knowledge the pivot of their progress and development.
“Our dream of national development would remain a dream unless our universities and educational institutions become the hub of research and creativity.”
In this respect he called for departing from traditional ways of thinking to embrace change and to catch up with the currents of time.
He said after the 18th Amendment, education was now a provincial subject and the federal government would only extend policy guidelines.
Gilani said the government has prepared a comprehensive National Educational Policy 2009 in consultation with the federating units and other stakeholders.
This Policy has set ambitious goals of raising the annual budgetary allocations for the sector to seven per cent of the GDP and increasing literacy to 85 per cent by 2015. The main thrust of the policy was to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015.
He said syllabus of public sector schools would be improved in consultation with private sector schools to reduce disparity between the two, initiate a regime of strict uniform examination system across the country and focus on gender equality and bridging urban-rural divide.
Prime Minister Gilani said he was keen to see development in the area and believes in providing basic facilities of life to the people at their doorsteps, with a belief to provide a conducive environment for the people.
Gilani recalled that his father and forefathers played a key role in providing health, education and other basic facilities for the people of South Punjab and to bring the area at par with the rest of the country.
He said he would come again for laying the foundation stone of a campus of Allama Iqbal Open University and an IT University. He said the root cause of terrorism was illiteracy.
Gilani in a message to the students urged them to be ambassador of hope and to keep optimism as their ideal.
“You have to keep pace with the demands of time and prepare yourself for future leadership roles, which is possible if you refuse to be cowed down by the impediments. Treat difficulties as challenges.”
He said Pakistan’s great leader and founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had great hopes from the youth. He once said;
“Pakistan is proud of her youth, particularly the students, who are nation builders of tomorrow. They must fully equip themselves by discipline, education, and training for the arduous task lying ahead of them.”
Gilani also announced a grant of Rs 10 million for the school, in two phases - one immediate and the second in the next budget, to ensure that the students of this area get the best of education.
The Prime Minister congratulated the Principal, faculty and staff for shouldering the sacred responsibility of building talents, inculcating knowledge, fostering courage, and above all preparing the students to face the practical world of tomorrow.
He also paid rich tributes to Sir Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi, the founding-father of this school, for his vision that led to the setting up of this school at Bahawalpur on the lines of Eton and Harrow in UK and Aitchison in Pakistan.
Gilani appreciated the founder Principal, Khan Anwar Sikandar Khan, and his deputy Abu Zafar Haneef who have left “a footprint of excellence in the field of education and earned a reputation Sadiq is rightly proud of.”
The Prime Minister said the objective of education was the formation of character and a responsible citizenry. He said it was the pivot upon which the edifice of progress of nations was built.
“It is an ornament which beautifies a nation and equips it with necessary capabilities to cope up with the challenges of time.”
The event was attended by President Board of Governors of the Sadiq Public School, Ministers and Members of Parliament and Gen Mian Muhammad Hilal Hussain, GOC 35 Division.