Chief Minister Punjab Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif emphasised the need to link the development with the quality education and upholding the merit and justice in every institution. Addressing a gathering of students at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, he said that during the last 64 years, the culture of merit was being crushed in the country that is responsible for many crises.
He said that Pakistan had the potential of becoming green basket especially in Gulf States by exporting the crops. But, unfortunately, the country is supposed to import the various foods because of appointing blue-eyed persons, crushing the merit and lack of planning.
He said no to foreign aid in a bid to get the dream of prosperity of the country. "We should also have to bring the money back from the Swiss banks to end the financial crunch", he added. The Chief Minister said: "It is the time to bring back the looted money as the country is under the grip of foreign loan that is compounding the problems of the common persons by increased prices of the daily use item".
Talking about livestock, he said that even India is earning the foreign exchange by exporting Halal meat to the other country. Although, we were enjoying best breeds and other factors, but we are lagging behind in the field. He said that the Punjab government had exported a container of 25 tonnes of meat after meeting international standards. He said that the livestock is the market of 600 billion dollar and "we are not having our share to the market. It is must to get the share in the sector by uplifting the sector for the development of the country". He also told the audience that the country is the fourth largest milk producer across the globe.
He said that in 2009, the Punjab experienced the bumper production of wheat after the government set the support price of Rs 900. But the small farmers are being exploited. On which, the government took all tangible steps to curb the trend and he himself visited many villages to ensure true price of their wheat thus Rs 30 billion was paid to the farmers.
He urged the federal government to import the required urea on time as the country is facing worst shortage of the commodity that is the essential for getting good production. He said that the country has been facing shortage of 15 lakh tonnes. He said that the government under the Punjab Educational Endowment Fund has provided scholarship of 30,000 for the needy students across the province while the 413 talented students of the UAF got benefit from the fund.
He also announced that as many as 300 scholars of the UAF would be sent abroad for studying in the well-reputed institutes for the development of the sector. He said that his government has earmarked Rs 10 billion to Punjab Education Foundation to ensure the quality of education at grass-roots level while as many as 0.1 million laptops are also being distributed among the talented students of the province.
He said: "The government has established star farms across the province to provide quality agricultural inputs to the farmers. The project is aimed at curtailing the role of middle man." He said that the provincial government has set up a Fund of Rs 1 billion under Akhuwat Foundation to provide interest-free loans up to Rs 50,000 to the needy person to start their business or continue their studies.
Comments
Comments are closed.