PM holds consultative meeting to review security

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday held a consultative meeting with senior political leadership to review the overall situation in the country.

The meeting was attended by Interior Minister Ch. Nisar, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Minister for States and Frontier General Abdul Qadir Baloch, Senator Mushahidullah, and PM's advisors Dr Asif Kirmani and Irfan Siddiqi. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has expressed the desire that the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training should immediately consider the feasibility of setting up a National Skills University in Islamabad.

The initiative should be taken to address the shortage of skilled human resource at all levels. According to an official document available with APP, under the umbrella of National Skills University, skills development centers in major industrial clusters like Karachi, Hyderabad, Quetta, Gwadar, Multan, Peshawar, Kohat, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Faisalabad and other developing industrial zones could be set up subsequently or simultaneously. For determining the areas of skill development, a broad and comprehensive exercise should be undertaken with representatives of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and organizations of all the major export sectors, the document said.

The Prime Minister observed that development of skilled human resource was prerequisite for transition of middle income economy into high income group with equitable resource distribution as an inherent output.

He further observed that the quality of skill development was also a major limitation which was affecting the competitiveness of Pakistan's export industry.

It was, therefore, imperative that a well-coordinated exercise should be undertaken for skill development of workers of all categories and capacities across the country, he added.

The job market in Pakistan repeatedly faces shortage of skilled human resource at various levels for which a number of attempts have been made by the government and various organizations to bridge the gap. However, it remains a fact that availability of properly trained skilled workers in most of the development sectors is a major challenge.