‘Community colleges can help meet educational, needs of Pakistan’

Islamabad : President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday said that the establishment of the community colleges was vital to meet the educational and skill requirements of the country.

The president, chairing a follow-up meeting on the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), said Pakistan was facing a shortage of skilled workforce therefore the higher educational and technical institutions needed to focus on the skill development of human resources, says a press release.

President Alvi said that the world had shifted to the online mode of education and the educational institutions needed to extensively invest in developing their IT infrastructure to promote online education.

He underlined the need for increasing the quantum of online education and the number of virtual classes to reduce the cost of education, particularly for students belonging to far-flung areas of the country. Pakistan wants to expand cooperation with friendly countries in areas of economy, trade and culture.

Meanwhile, talking to the High Commissioner-designate of Brunei Darussalam, Ambassadors-designate of Algeria and Greece, and non-resident Ambassadors-designate of Mauritania and Albania, who made separate calls on him, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, President Alvi said that Pakistan highly values its ties with all friendly countries and wants to further expand bilateral cooperation with them in the areas of economy, trade and culture.

The High Commissioner-designate of Brunei Darussalam, Mr Pengiran Abdul Samad bin Pengiran Haji Metasan, Ambassadors-designate of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, Mr Brahim Romani, Greece (Hellenic Republic), Mr Konstantinos Moatsos, the Republic of Mauritania, Mr Mohamed Vall Bah, and the Republic of Albania, Mr Kastriot Robo, presented their credentials to President Dr Arif Alvi at a ceremony. Congratulating the newly-appointed ambassadors, the President expressed the hope that they would play their role to further strengthen bilateral relations during their stay in Pakistan.

The President remarked that Pakistan wanted to increase its trade volume with all friendly countries and was making efforts to enhance its exports. He stressed the need to broaden the base of bilateral cooperation by establishing institutional frameworks with friendly countries for meaningful engagement in diverse areas. The president also highlighted the human rights violations being committed by India in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and urged the international community to hold India accountable and help resolve the dispute in accordance with the UNSC resolutions.