President Urges Nation To Cast Votes Responsibly, With Due Diligence

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Jan, 2023 ) :President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday called upon the nation to cast their votes with utmost responsibility and due diligence to elect representatives who were capable of taking smart decisions and had the capability to oversee their accelerated implementation.

He said that elections and voting provided the citizens with the opportunity to carefully choose their representatives so that they could provide quality leadership and put the country on the path of progress, prosperity and development.

The president expressed these views while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the National Centre of Industrial Biotechnology at the Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi.

Addressing the occasion, the president said that there was no dearth of ideas in the country, however, he pointed out the lack of institutions, relevant laws and supporting policies to keep pace with the contemporary world.

He said that Pakistan needed to develop intellect-based highly responsive institutions and systems capable of making smart decisions and keeping pace with the developed countries which would help generate products and services which could be readily accepted in the international markets.

President Alvi regretted that Pakistan despite being an agricultural country and having the potential to become self-reliant, faced malnutrition and a shortage of agricultural commodities.

This, he said, could be achieved by developing creative and innovative agriculture processes and techniques which in the developed world had led to the development of high-yielding crops requiring minimum inputs.

He called upon the research institutions of the country and the agriculturists to learn from the best global agricultural practices.

He stressed combining them with indigenous research to produce high-yielding seeds and crops, besides adopting cost-effective vertical farming and hydroponic agricultural techniques to substantially increase the agricultural output of the country.

The president said that Pakistan needed to communicate and transfer current agricultural knowledge and optimized techniques to the farmers at the grassroots level, besides promoting water-efficient means of irrigation to help transform centuries-old cultivation.

This, he added, would not only help the country in achieving self-sufficiency but would also help improve the life and livelihood of Pakistan's farmers.

The president stated that the neck-breaking speed of scientific advancements had made available instruments and analytical tools which could provide data on the composition, nature and kind of soil.

This could be further analyzed through software to provide recommendations regarding the nutritional and water needs of crops around the year, he added.

The president said Artificial Intelligence was changing the way of life and was bringing a paradigm shift in the quality, efficacy and nature of the products and services.

He stressed the use of AI in all processes, both in the public and private sectors, to bring much-needed efficiency to our systems.

The president said by providing education and improving people's economic conditions, many countries had successfully reduced population growth to zero.

Pakistan should employ out-of-the-box solutions by merely ensuring the availability of contraceptive products to the target population and thus reducing the nine million unwanted pregnancies by half.

Former Pro-Chancellor of the University and Former Minister for Agriculture Punjab Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi said the country's agriculture sector could be substantially enhanced by the introduction of technology, mechanization, and precision farming techniques.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Qamar-uz-Zaman informed that 40 programmes in the Industrial and Biotechnology had been restored at the university, besides taking steps for enhancing the skills, quality and training of the staff and the faculty of the university.

Earlier, the president inaugurated the National Centre of Industrial Biotechnology at the university, besides visiting the Centre for Precision Agriculture and Big Data Agriculture Repository.