ISLAMABAD – Speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Thursday urged young people from Balochistan to embrace artificial intelligence (AI), research and continuous learning, saying the country’s future depended on a technologically skilled and well-educated generation.
He was speaking to a delegation of students participating in the five-day Digital Balochistan AI Launchpad Bootcamp, who called on him at Parliament House. Federal Secretary for Inter-Provincial Coordination Mohyuddin Ahmad Wani also attended the meeting.
Welcoming the students, the Speaker recalled his long association with Balochistan, saying he had first visited the province in 1994. He described Balochistan as a strategically important province and said the Reko Diq mining project had the potential to transform Pakistan’s economic future.
He said the National Assembly had launched an internship programme under which students from 21 universities across Pakistan were receiving parliamentary training. He added that efforts were under way to expand internship opportunities for students from Balochistan.
Highlighting the importance of reading and research, Mr Sadiq said that when he was first elected to the National Assembly in 2002, he had limited knowledge of the Constitution and parliamentary procedures. He said he had regularly studied the Constitution of Pakistan and the National Assembly’s Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, enabling him to gain a deeper understanding of parliamentary affairs.
The Speaker said the National Assembly had reserved employment quotas for all provinces and was also providing opportunities for persons with disabilities. He added that efforts were being made to increase women’s representation in the parliamentary workforce to 30 per cent, stressing that equal opportunities for young people were essential for national development. During the meeting, the students were briefed on the National Assembly’s adoption of artificial intelligence and advanced digital technologies to modernise parliamentary operations. They were informed that the Assembly had introduced Pakistan’s first AI-enabled parliamentary system to improve legislative processes and administrative efficiency.
The delegation was also briefed on the digitisation of parliamentary business, including the electronic circulation of agendas, bills, reports and other official documents. Members of the National Assembly have also been provided with digital tablets as part of the transition to a paperless parliamentary system, reducing paper consumption while improving efficiency and access to information.
Mr Sadiq said AI was helping strengthen parliamentary research, legislative drafting, post-legislative scrutiny, access to information and administrative functions. However, he emphasised that artificial intelligence should be viewed as a tool to complement rather than replace human intelligence, creativity and decision-making.
Earlier, Tech Valley Pakistan Founder and Chief Executive Officer Umar Farooq briefed the Speaker on the objectives and progress of the Digital Balochistan AI Launchpad Bootcamp.
Commending the initiative, the Speaker praised the Government of Balochistan, Tech Valley Pakistan, the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, and the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP) for promoting AI education and equipping young people with skills needed for the digital economy.
