Pakistan can help the Afghan youth learn the secrets of setting their country on the road to prosperity, Maulana Shehzada Shahid, member of the Afghan parliament and speaker of the Afghan Peace Council, said on Tuesday.
The Afghan parliamentarian was addressing an event organised by the International Club of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.
Shahid said that Pakistan was more developed with respect to religious freedom, media, culture and agricultural productivity and the Afghan youth in Pakistan and Afghanistan could learn from their Pakistani brethren.
He praised Pakistan’s achievements in higher education and felicitated the UAF management for securing a place among the top universities of the world by the by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and Nanyang Technological University rankings.
Earlier, VC Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that UAF’s international students had a key role in transforming the Afghan agriculture and providing leadership in Afghan government. He said that university alumni were a powerful tool in removing misperceptions in both counties. He said Afghanistan should seek food security through agriculture graduates’ input in formulating the country’s agriculture policies. He said the UAF had gained partners in the German, Australian, and US programmes for higher education and research.
“A trilateral (Pakistan, Afghanistan and US) commission is working on food security, water and creating trade corridors that would also help enhance productivity and prosperity in the region” he said.
Cultural Attaché at the Afghan Embassy Shamash Zardast thanked Pakistan for its support to the Afghan students pursuing higher education in Pakistan. He said the number of Afghan students at Pakistani institutions had increased from 2,000 to 8,000 since 2011. He said Afghanistan has made substantial progress in higher education as number of students in higher education programmes had reached 0.6 million in 2013 from only 5,000 in 2001.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 29th, 2013.