KARACHI  -  Federal Science and Technology Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Monday said that federal gov­ernment will play proactive role for improvement of education sector in Sindh with an aim of creating job op­portunities for the youth. The min­ster while talking to media persons during visit of Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) Laboratory Complex Karachi said that a large chunk of country’s population was consisted of youth and Ministry of Science and Tech­nology was ready to take measures in coordination with the provincial government for training the youth in skills required in the global market. 

All the organisations working un­der the ambit of MoST as well as higher education institutions will start technical courses for second­ary and higher secondary students having proficiency in subjects of Eng­lish and Mathematics, he said and added that after the skill building the trained students will be able to ac­quire jobs around the world. 

“It will not be brain drain but actu­ally it will be brain train as they will be able to practically contribute in development of the country,” he said and elaborated that highly skilled workers from Pakistan will not only send precious foreign exchange to the homeland but they will also get the first hand knowledge of latest de­velopments in different fields. 

Stressing the need of unified efforts to deal with challenges confronted by the country, Khalid Maqbool said that we may steer the nation out of crisis if every stakeholder prioritise state over political or individual motives. 

We have to set our direction to­wards an inclusive and participatory democratic approach by going into the masses for strengthening the democratic system in the country, he opined and added that his party was playing a constructive role to bring democratic stability in the country. 

Responding to a query the minister stated that the people of Karachi have given the mandate to his party once again and MQM-Pakistan has joined the coalition government for bring­ing political stability in the country. 

His party neither put forward nomination for the post of Sindh gov­ernor nor they have demanded cer­tain ministries in the federal cabinet, he clarified on a question. However, it was our point of view that if chief minister of the province belongs to rural areas then governor should be from the urban populace, he added. 

The minister, on a query about fi­nancial issues particularly non-pay­ment of salaries to PCSIR employees, assured prompt measures for resolv­ing the issue. 

Earlier, the federal minister vis­ited various sections of the Labora­tory Complex received briefing on functions of the council and facilities available at the complex. 

The minister was briefed that PC­SIR is mandated to conduct quality tests and issue certification that is recognized nationally and interna­tionally. The meeting was informed that council was facilitating regula­tory bodies, industries and small and medium enterprises through its different research centres in vari­ous fields including pharmaceutical, food and marine resources, applied Chemistry, Environment, Applied Physics, Computer and instrumen­tation and engineering. 

The PCSIR has developed a number of products, equipment, machines and process while the first GMO lab of the country was also housed in the complex, the meeting was further in­formed. The minster, on the occasion, directed to submit priority-wise de­tails of all the projects in pipeline.