KARACHI, Nov 20: President General Pervez Musharraf has described the 2007 general elections in the country as ‘mother of all elections’ and asked people to make it a point to exercise their right to franchise.

“We have to defeat extremist parties and elements which are against the country’s progress,” he said while addressing a gathering of philanthropists organised by Abdul Kader Jaffer, President of the Ahmed E. H. Jaffer Foundation, here on Monday. The foundation has undertaken establishment of the Hub School of Excellence.

Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad and Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim; Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri, Corps Commander Lt-General Ahsan Azhar Hayat, diplomats, leading businessmen and senior officials were present on the occasion.

President Musharraf stressed: “In order to deal with extremist parties and elements, there is a need to defeat them in next general elections. People must vote as it carries significance. Please do vote.”

Appreciating donors for their help in setting up the school, President Musharraf said the government would increase allocation for education development from the current 2.6 per cent to 4 per cent of the GDP or Rs160 billion to improve quality of education and raise literacy level to 85 per cent by 2010. “It is shameful that a country with nuclear and missile power has only 53 per cent literacy level,” he regretted.

He said the allocation for primary and secondary education was being increased gradually.

About the strategy to improve education standards, he said the government was making efforts to strengthen the foundation of education structure in the country. He pointed out that primary and secondary education was a provincial subject, and said that the Centre had to formulate a policy.

The government was working to improve the curriculum & syllabus, examination system and quality of teachers, he noted.

The president underlined the need for reconciling of Urdu and English mediums of education and said this difference had to be removed to promote education.

“English will be a compulsory (subject) in all, even public sector, schools because English is the future of the world. We must not go down in English and at the same time we must not ignore our mother tongue, Urdu, which is our national language.”

In Islamiat, the president said, the focus was more on Huqooqul Ibad (duty towards fellow beings), character and responsibilities of an individual, as sought in Islam, instead of only ritual part which was leading to divisions.

Regarding higher education, he said the government was establishing nine engineering universities in various cities of at a cost of Rs250 billion to produce quality engineers. The foundation of two of them had already been laid. “I am going to perform ground-breaking for the third university, in Sialkot, very shortly,” he said, adding that all these universities would start functioning by 2008.

“This is a way forward in this knowledge-driven world to convert knowledge into economic benefits,” he observed. President Musharraf observed that 160 million people were the power potential of Pakistan, and quality of education and health further reinforced this potential.—PPI/APP