Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori on 02-February-2025 said that the encouraging increase in the aptitude of Pakistani youth to learn information technology skills would guarantee the bright future of the country.
Tessori was addressing over 10,000 male and female candidates who took a mega test at the Abdul Sattar Edhi International Hockey Stadium. Selected students will be enrolled in the next batch of the mass IT training programme of the Saylani Welfare International Trust (SWIT).
The duration of the mega test was one hour, and its results will be announced on the internet. The prospective candidates had enrolled for the test through an online portal. The candidates showed their admit cards to take the test.
Tessori said the mass attendance of students in the aptitude test was a clear indicator that Sindh would become a hub of IT activities in the country. He said the overwhelming interest shown by Pakistani youth in the IT field would ensure the success of the country.
He said he wishes the SWIT could have enrolled all the candidates applying for the IT training programme without conducting any qualification tests. He thanked SWIT founder Maulana Bashir Farooqi for launching the mass IT training initiative to secure the future of Pakistani youth.
The governor said the rulers should follow in Farooqi’s footsteps. He told the candidates that after completing the IT training course, they would start earning in dollars. He urged the students to show complete dedication and commitment in learning the IT skills to earn dollars for Pakistani foreign exchange.
He said the graduates of the IT education programme can easily start earning millions every month with hard work and excellence in their technical field. He also said that an exceptionally brilliant 12-year-old graduate of the IT learning programme has started earning Rs500,000 every month through his software skills. Tessori lamented that in the past students had been handed Kalashnikovs to involve them in violence.
He said the Governor House, in partnership with the SWIT, has been conducting free IT training programmes for thousands of students from underprivileged families. The new generation should ensure the best utilisation of the resources available in Pakistan to earn foreign exchange for the country, he added.
He lamented the lack of accountability of the past rulers who had taken billions of rupees from the IMF. He said that learning IT skills is of the utmost importance for the Pakistani youth because of a serious dearth of jobs for university graduates.
He also said the basic needs of the Karachi’s residents, including electricity, water and gas, are not being fulfilled by the government. He hoped that the candidates taking the aptitude test would emerge as champions in the IT field.
Farooqi said the Saylani Trust had launched the mass IT training initiative with the aim that Pakistan’s annual software exports increase to $100 billion in the next decade. He said the Saylani Trust would fully assist the government drive to increase Pakistan’s exports in the IT sector. The trained manpower in the IT field will play an important role in making Pakistan a developed and progressive nation, he added.
He urged print, electronic and social media to build a positive image of Pakistan for the outside world by giving maximum coverage to positive developments in the country. He gave the example of print and electronic media in the US, which give the least coverage to recurring incidents of criminal activities in the country, including armed robberies in broad daylight in major American cities.
The SWIT founder said the graduates of the mass IT training programme who belonged to underprivileged families had started developing lucrative smartphone apps and earning hundreds of thousands of rupees every month.
Published in News Daily on 04-February-2025.