NGI

My basic belief is that scientific research must lead to economic development and society must benefit from it. There is a need to make people science conscious. That the society must become more sensitive to the usefulness of science. As you look at scientific developments, you must always remain conscious of their possible impact on society. It is in that context that the concept of Digital Divide has come up, both at global level between nations and local level within a country, society and community, especially between the rural and urban populations. I was thus naturally excited when I learnt that his Excellency Dr. Ahmed Mohammad Alam, President Islamic Development Bank has discussed this idea with Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman that Comstech should organize an international seminar on Digital Divide. We want to do that in November. The emphasis would be on how could we develop effective strategies that will make the benefits of science & technology reach the largest number of people. That how the poor can benefit from IT, computers and Internet. The message there is to initiate a campaign, a crusade, whereby the emerging technologies bring economic prosperity for the well being of the common folks.

As far as Comstech is concerned, obviously whatever we do on a small scale in any member country, we immediately want to look at the possibilities of extending it to other Islamic countries. Poverty is not a problem confined only to Pakistan. It is a global problem. About 18 Muslim countries are among the least developed countries. We would extend these efforts to other Muslim countries but we would like to start it here in Pakistan.