Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is diligently working on investing the human capital and therefore the quality education is among the top priorities of the government for the socio-economic uplift of the country. He was addressing the 17th annual convocation of University of Management and Technology here in Lahore on Monday. Speaking as the chief guest of the convocation, Qureshi said that there is abundance of natural talent in the Pakistani youth and therefore they should learn to capitalize their natural talent as they are the future leaders of this country. Addressing the students, minister said that the future wars will not be fought on the battlefields but through minds and technology due to the advancement of technology these days and therefore our students should have more focus in learning the efficient usage of technology to excel in the world. As many as 739 students were awarded degrees in the 17th convocation of UMT while medals were also given on the occasion to bright students. According to the details, 322 bachelors, 130 Masters, 283 MS/M.Phil and 4 PhD degrees were conferred upon during the convocation. Moreover, 5 Patron’s gold medals, 5 Rector’s silver medals, 6 Rector’s Academic Excellence Awards Gold medal, 3 certificates of excellence and one Rector’s research recognition award were also given in the convocation. “The young voter and especially the young educated voter played an important role in forming the government of PTI in last elections because they voted for us in a large number and it is just because of the young voters that I am standing here today,” said Qureshi in his address. In his welcoming note, president of UMT/ILM Ibrahim Hassan Murad said that Mr Qureshi is a statesman of highest honor and played a pivotal role in restoring Pakistan’s prestige in the international arena as he not only fought the case of 200 million Pakistanis but also represented 2 billion Muslims of the world globally. “There is a need to have more focus on the research in our universities as it can leads to the economic growth and improvement in our exports,” said Murad. Rector UMT Dr. Muhammad Aslam said that convocation is always a very special day for graduates, parents and teachers because students enter in a new era after achieving this milestone. He said that UMT pays a lot of emphasis on faculty and therefore it has over 450 teachers including 150 PhDs. Not only this, UMT offers a wide variety of degree programs that are accredited by their respective national accreditation councils, he added. Dr Aslam said that UMT also focused on engaging the faculty and students in research work, and several national and international conferences were organized in UMT, with guest speakers hailing from US, UK, Australia, Turkey, China, and Sri Lanka. Rector of varsity also told that UMT has secured a place in the top 500 universities of Asia, according to the QS Asia ranking 2019.