MIRPUR (AJK): Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said that the youth owe the responsibility of thwarting conspiracies currently being hatched by enemies to keep Pakistan deprived of dividends of development and prosperity.
Addressing teachers and students of Lawrence College in Murree on Sunday, he said China in the neighbourhood was fast going to emerge as the world’s second-biggest economic power while on the other hand, India was preparing to compete China.
Similarly, Iran and the Gulf states had the full potential to move forward because of their oil wealth, he added, according to a press release issued here by the AJK Presidential Secretariat.
Sardar Masood said the youth were fully capable of turning Pakistan into an economic and defense power. “Young students guarantee bright future of the country,” he said adding that the youth would have to prepare themselves to cope with the challenges confronting Pakistan, and to play a vibrant role to turn it into a peaceful, developed and prosperous state.
He said Almighty Allah had blessed Pakistan with abundant natural and human resources, and it was the responsibility of the new generation to ensure adequate use of these resources so as to make the country a stable and prosperous state.
“For this purpose, it is imperative to ensure that national security institutions are strong, we have cutting edge nuclear technology, law and order prevails in the country and our educational institutions prepare a generation who has leadership qualities in politics, economy, and business,” he added.
Sardar Masood said side by side with curriculum activities, the students needed to have full realization as to what was going on around, where did the country stand, and to which direction it was to be led.
He said,”We would have to pledge and set the targets to completely eradicate poverty in the country, provide education and health facilities as per world standards by 2030.
“We have to make country’s defence and security invincible, and bring the country on the list of top ten economically prosperous countries by 2050.”
Responding to a volley of questions posed by students, Sardar Masood said Azad Kashmir was neither a province of Pakistan nor a sovereign state. The people of the area had liberated the territory form Dogra rulers, and had formed a government to take steps for the liberation of the part of Kashmir still under Indian occupation.
About the Simla Agreement, he said the accord did not prevent Pakistan from raising the Kashmir issue on the world forums. India had very sharply and fraudulently conveyed to the international community that Kashmir had become a bilateral issue after the Simla Accord and that it could not be raised on an international forum.
“This claim on the part of India is baseless and the Kashmiri people do not accept it,” he added.
The AJK president said India had never shown sincerity to come to the negotiations table during the last 71 years, and it had always used the dialogue process as a tool to perpetuate its illegal occupation of Kashmir.
He lamented that hatred was being systematically promoted against Muslims in India under the official patronage, and the targets of this wave of hatred are the Muslims of India, people of Jammu and Kashmir, and the state of Pakistan.