Gen Kayani calls for discipline, revamping of educational system
By Bushra Makhdoom

RAWALPINDI—Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said Thursday the country had talent but there was need for discipline and putting the educational system on the right track.
“We neither lack talent nor hard work, but we are awfully deficient of discipline in our individual and collective lives,” he said while speaking at the 5th post-graduate convocation of the National University of Science and Technology here.
He said: “We have yet to channelize our energies in the right direction and in a correct manner. If we manage to put our educational system on the right track, many of our problems will be taken care of.” General Kayani admired NUST and said it had grown by leaps and bounds, becoming one of the five top 500 universities of the world, as mention mentioned by Dr. Attaur Rehman, Chairman of Higher Education Commission, in his speech.
The COAS said that one and a half decade was not a very long time for a university to grow and turn into a centre of excellence but NUST had achieved the stature. “It is gratifying to note that despite immense resistance the government has responded to the needs of higher education. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) is doing a wonderful job today and we hope to see the effect of their efforts in the medium to long terms,” Gen Kayani said. He told the graduates that NUST had equipped them with sound education and training in their respective fields. It was now up to them to continually build on this solid academic foundation and embrace the best in professional learning and advancement.
Frontiers of education in all fields, specially in science and technology, were expanding beyond imagination and so were the opportunities for them to advance, provided they had the inspiration and will to do so, he told the young scholars.
“As a nation we have not done well in educational fields and we are therefore struggling today to discover our nationhood and a rightful place in the comity of nations,” the COAS said and hoped that new graduates would be able to do “what our generations could not.” The Chief of the Army Staff advised graduating scholars to act with courage and perseverance and exploit the opportunities to pursue knowledge, whatever the odds.