Pakistan has a tremendous pool of talent, says governor

Pakistan is a country endowed with tremendous talent, especially among the young. All we have to do is to devise ways and means to exploit this valuable resource to make Pakistan great.

This exhortation was made by Sindh Governor Imran Ismail while inaugurating the two-day Dice-Cam 2018 at the Arts Council on Friday evening. Enumerating Pakistan’s tremendous talent, he said that while Pakistan was viewed as an overly conservative country by the world, people forgot that Pakistan was the first Asian country to have produced a female fighter pilot in the air force. Pakistan, he said, had the largest number of women commercial pilots.

“The formation of new Pakistan has begun. The new Pakistan will certainly be there within the next five years.” He called upon the young people to set themselves a target, the target being helping Pakistan advance. The country, he said, needed young blood. “You are indebted to the people who are deprived and you owe it to them to help their country prosper.” “We need to appreciate people like DICE,” he said.

DICE is the abbreviation for Distinguished Innovation, Collaboration and Entrepreneurship. It is a forum comprising Pakistanis resident in the US and virtually all of them have flown over from there.

The DICE-Cam 2018 aims at fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship so as to create a link among the academia, the creative arts and the digital community. Khurshid Qureshi, founder of DICE, said that what was required was to “change the DNA of the nation”.

He lauded the fact that recently 40 young women from Karachi had gone over to Faisalabad to attend the innovative competition. He lamented the pronounced import syndrome in our collective mindset and called upon the government to actively help in effecting import substitution.

He talked of the national Innovative Basket that would identify items from all spheres. Ajmal Zaheer Ahmed, a Michigan-based Pakistani who also collaborates with Hollywood in the production of documentaries and other movies, narrated how the idea of DICE materialised 10 years ago.

He predicted that over the next decade the creative arts and media, the fashion industry, and the film industry would make revolutionary progress. “I’ve never seen such a tremendous pool of talent as in Pakistan. All we need is opportunity and a change in the mindset. We just have to look to the future and have a vision.”

The CEO, Hum TV, Sultana Siddiqi, spoke of the tremendous talent in her field ad said the country had a great future. Others who spoke were Zaki Rashdi of Iqra University and Dr Raana Kanwal