SKARDU: President Mamnoon Hussain has said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will immensely benefit the people of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
Addressing a laptop distribution ceremony at Karakoram International University here on Saturday, the president said the CPEC was a historic project that would bring prosperity in the province. The CPEC, which is being executed swiftly, would open up new avenues of progress in the region, he added. However, he urged the people of the province to foil conspiracies obstructing the national development.
He said Pakistan’s enemies were jealous of the CPEC and would do their utmost to fail the project. It is responsibility of the people, particularly the youth, to thwart the enemies’ nefarious designs, he maintained.
He was of the view that the Karakoram International University (KIU) was playing an important role in promotion of education in the region. He said the government was striving to improve the education sector, which was evident of the fact that the budget for the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had been enhanced in the current fiscal. The president noted that GB had huge potential for the business community. The region could not be developed owing to international circumstances and issues in the past; however, the incumbent government was taking all-out steps to address the issues.
Referring to upsurge in violence in Indian-held Kashmir, the president said Pakistan would continue to extend political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiris in their just struggle for right to self-determination.
Besides a large number of notables from the area, GB Governor Mir Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Chief Minister Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman, HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, KIU Senate Chairperson Khawar Mumtaz and Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Asif attended the ceremony.
