Chairman Prime Minister’s Youth Programme Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan said on Thursday that the government was providing equal opportunities to the youth to move forward.
“There was immense talent in Pakistan’s IT sector and we will bring next year’s budget without IMF,” he said, while addressing an awards ceremony organised by Assort Tech Private Limited (IT Company) at a local hotel here.
A large number of IT experts associated with the company, including Assort Tech Chief Executive Officer Aftab Ahmad, Senior Vice President Engineer Khalid Usman, COO Usama Ali Khan and Motivational Speaker Qasim Ali Shah were present on the occasion.
Addressing the ceremony, Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan said that Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif had a vision that Pakistan’s IT industry should be improved in every way, the government’s job was not to do business but to help business people. The chairman Youth Programme added that promoting the IT industry was the mission of the current government and the government want to take the $2.5 billion IT industry to $25 billion in the next four years, added Mashhood. He said the government would provide all facilities for the development of IT sector.
Mashhood said, “If a platform is provided to the youth, successful entrepreneurs like Aftab Ahmad will be seen. Youngsters should take successful people like Aftab Ahmed as their role model.”
He said that earlier, children of poor families used to hide their success after becoming successful, but today it was all the opposite, now people show their success after becoming successful and it was a matter of great pride that they participate in various events all over Pakistan.
Rana Mashhood Ahmed said that a few days ago, in Quetta and Islamabad, “I met the youth who were successful in various fields and most of their parents were laborers, but instead of being ashamed, these youth attributed their success to the training and hard work of their parents.”
He said that when Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister, he met Bill Gates in 1997-98 and revolutionized the IT sector by laying optical fiber in Pakistan. This was a great gift from the then PM to the nation, but unfortunately after his departure, the work did not happen as fast as it should have. He added that in 2015, when he went to Microsoft’s head office in Europe, the experts there, said that if Pakistan did not contribute to the IT sector, then their country would be left far behind. Keeping this in mind, the then government provided laptops to the youth in educational institutions and provided free Wi-Fi facility in various institutions.—APP
