GIK Institute convocation: Alvi says Pakistan will surmount challenges

SWABI: President Dr Arif Alvi said the country would rise due to extraordinary capabilities of the nation despite challenges and difficulties confronted by the motherland.

“Pakistan will rise if the leadership of the country takes correct decisions at the present critical juncture of its history,” he said. He was addressing the 26th convocation at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology.

President Alvi conferred degrees on a total of 487 students, including 10 PhD scholars. Arif Alvi, who is chancellor of GIK Institute, said that Pakistan successfully tackled the situation when Balakot and other places were hit by the October 2005 earthquake.

He said the country fought the Covid-19 pandemic when it hit the world. “We accommodated four million Afghan refugees after the former Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan in December 1979,” he said.

Arif Alvi said that Pakistan defeated the monster of terrorism. “We are proud of all these achievements and the bravery and courage displayed by the Pakistani nation,” he said. He added military might and natural resources could not guarantee economic prosperity; rather it was the human resources and contemporary education, which helped a country to be economically prosperous, politically strong and militarily powerful.

“If only the natural resources guaranteed prosperity and supremacy, the Middle Eastern countries would have the status of superpowers,” he said. He said universities should work to strengthen the moral character of the students to serve the nation.

Arif Alvi paid tributes to former President of Pakistan late Ghulam Ishaq Khan who wanted to establish an institute that would reduce Pakistan's dependence on foreign expertise and imported technology.

“The GIK Institute attracted the country’s most competent scientist late Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, who played a role in elevating the institute as one of the world’s finest science and engineering colleges, he elaborated.

GIK Institute Rector Prof Dr Fazal Ahmed Khalid said the graduates could meet the global engineering and scientific challenges. He said the institute was committed to providing an educational experience through outcome based learning to transform the lives of students.