Referring to a recent Pakistani television talk show where civil society members praised Bangladesh's development, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday said many countries including Pakistan want to follow Bangladesh as a role model.

The Pakistani scholars and civil society are now requesting their newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan to make Pakistan like Bangladesh within 10 years, he said, adding, "Pakistan had dominated and ruled us. But now we are ahead of them in many sectors."

The minister came up with the remarks while speaking as chief guest at an international seminar marking the seventh death anniversary of celebrated writer Syed Ahmadul Huq, popularly known as

"BanglarRumi".

Allama Rumi Society Bangladesh organised the daylong programme at Professor Muzaffar Ahmed Chowdhury Auditorium of Dhaka University.

On the talk show, a Pakistani civil society member drew upon Bangladesh's economy and commented that if Imran-led PTI does everything right, it will take 10 years for Pakistan to achieve the same status as Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Nahid urged the young generation to inculcate moral values and achieve higher education to contribute to the country's prosperity.

"Confusion was created among the youths through misinterpretation of religion. We should immediately stop the spread of this kind of misconception and move forward by uprooting communalism from the country," he said. At the first session of the programme, Prof Sirajul Islam of Visva-Bharati read out an article titled "Sufi Spiritualism and Humanism", and at the last two sessions, seven more were presented by the university teachers of Bangladesh and India.

Iranian Ambassador to Bangladesh Dr Abbas Vaezi, DU Social Sciences Faculty Dean Prof Sadeka Halim and Prof AKM Saifiil Islam Khan of DU's Persian language and culture department, among others, spoke at the programme.