Dr. Arif Alvi repeated Pakistan’s offer on Monday to give Afghan students online and virtual learning opportunities through Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and the Virtual University of Pakistan (VUP).
After learning that Mufti Sahib would be visiting Afghanistan to meet with the government, the president spoke with Mufti Taqi Usmani and explained that because Afghanistan lacked widespread internet access, it was initially possible to reach Afghan students, both male and female, through the country’s television network.
The offer was made after the Afghan Minister of Education told the president during a visit that higher education in Afghanistan was in bad condition.
During meetings with the Afghan ambassador, Afghan counsel generals, and other Afghan government leadership on various occasions, the president had conveyed the Pakistani government’s offers of providing online and virtual education facilities to Afghanistan, either directly or through his interactions with them.
“Iqra in Quran is for all Muslims and is not gender specific,” the president said.
He said that if Afghanistan was taking steps to educate its female population in accordance with its own preferences, then this broad program needed to be appropriately publicized to the rest of the world through all media channels and communication instruments to allay their concerns.
He said that Pakistan needed to build its own human resource if it desired peace and progress in Afghanistan.
