KARACHI: Muhammad Mureed Rahimoon, Secretary Universities and Boards Department, Government of Sindh, has said on Wednesday that manpower comprised of youth is an asset of the country, and that should be groomed and trained by universities according to the needs of modern digital age.

He said this on Wednesday at the inaugural ceremony of the three-day Students Festival organized by Sindh Madressatul Islam University’s (SMIU) Directorate of Students Affairs in collaboration with the Students Council. This festival will remain continue till Friday.

Rahmoon said universities must maintain job record of their alumni, as it could be assessed that how many young people are in jobs. The secretary said now job market has been reached to the saturated point, but our talented youth can find jobs in national as well as international market specially in private sector.

He said, there is no doubt that universities of Sindh are facing financial problems, but they should create their own financial resources like private universities. He also said except three or four universities majority of our universities are out from world ranking.

Thus, remaining universities need improvement in their working and vision. Criticizing young generation Muhammad Mureed Rahimoon said majority of our youth is lacking in general knowledge. Even they didn’t know history of their own country. On the other hand, present day world is changing rapidly day by day. Hence, they must equip themselves with knowledge power to get some place in the society.

He congratulated Vice Chancellor Dr Mujeebuddin Sahrai and organizers of the festival for encouraging and organizing this sort of activities in the university. VC Dr Mujeebuddin Sahrai in his speech said SMIU believes that students must be given some space to showcase their creative abilities in form of art, literature, debate, sports etc.

He said SMIU has always set a good tradition by supporting students to involve in such meaningful and healthy activities. The Vice Chancellor announced that two students (male and female) of SMIU shall be given award in the category of “The Best Student of the Year.” He thanked the secretary of universities and boards for giving some time to students of SMU and said that he has always remained supportive to SMIU.

Dr Faizullah Abbasi, Vice Chancellor of Dawood University of Engineering and Technology said when they were young, radio was the only source of their information, while Daily Dawn was reached at their home town through train in those days, from which they were finding job opportunities.

But today’s generation has multiple sources of information on their figure tips. They could easily receive required information through internet now. But, he confessed, our generation has created a large mess, now our young generation have to clear it.” Later on, VC Dr Mujeeb Sahrai gave shields to the guests and organizer of the event Dr Asif Ali Wagan.

Students also presented bouquet to the guests. After that Rahimoon participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony along with Dr Mujeebuddin Sahrai, Dr Faizullah Abbasi, Registrar Ghulam Mustafa Shaikh, Director DSA Dr Asif Ali Wagan, Director ORIC Dr Aamir Iqbal Umrani, Deans and chairpersons Dr. Zahid Ali Channar, Dr. Aftab Shaikh, Dr. Jamshed Halepoto, Controller Examination Furqan Iftikhar and other officials.

Then they visited different stalls set up by students and appreciated young artists who had displayed their paintings in an exhibition. Different student societies had also organized music, mushaira and other programs in the auditorium.