Minister Excise & Taxation, Finance Punjab, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has said that government employee's pay will be increased as per inflation; however, the announcement in federal budget regarding pay increase will be adopted in Punjab budget also. He said that education and health is the priority of the Punjab government and Punjab government has increased education budget one percent of GDP in every year and incoming budget, remarkable increase for education and health sectors will be announced.
He said that steps will be taken to provide paid internship to the pharmacists in public sector hospitals besides resolving other problems. He expressed these views while talking to media people after the Convocation of the Punjab University College of pharmacy here Monday. Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran, Dean/Principal Pharmacy College Dr Mubashar Ahmed Butt and Dr Nawazish Hussain also address in the ceremony. The Minister distributed gold medals among the distinguished students whereas Vice Chancellor awarded degrees to the successful students.
Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said that the Punjab government has made the appointment of pharmacists mandatory at secondary and tertiary care hospitals and had revised the service structure of hospital pharmacists and enabling them to serve in BS-17 to BS-21 on different administrative posts. He said that Punjab government's strong determination was in providing IT facilities to the undergraduate and postgraduate students on merit and government will continue the laptop schemes and award of scholarships to the brilliant students purely on merit.
While addressing the ceremony minister said that that education and health sectors were on top priority of the government and in the last year, the provincial government spent 26 percent of its total budget on education. He said that Punjab government had taken steps for the welfare of pharmacists including compulsory appointment of pharmacists in some hospitals, improvement of their service structure, delegation of powers of drug inspector to pharmacists in hospitals and compulsory appointment of pharmacists in distribution channels.
He advised the students to serve ailing humanity and develop their profession as pharmacists could play important role in healthcare system. Addressing the ceremony, Dr Mujahid Kamran said that there were about 1.5 billion Muslims in the world but their share in creation of new knowledge was almost zero. He said that around 750 verses of Holy Quran, which is 1/8th of the Holy Book, stressed observation of natural phenomena and resolution of mysteries of the universe and this reflected the importance of knowledge in the Quran. He said that the average spending of the world on education was around 5 percent while Pakistan was spending less than 2 percent. He said that the total GDP of US was 16 trillion dollars and the US was spending around 800 billion dollars on education and around 320 billion dollars on research and development while volume of Pakistan's GDP was only around 220 billion dollars. He said that knowledge was a must for respectable survival of the world. He advised the students to work hard, have strong grasp over their subjects, do justice and cooperate with each other.
Dr Mubashar Ahmed said that the college was oldest seat of learning of pharmacy and now the students would find an opportunity to practice what they had learnt. He demanded the Finance Minister allocate money in the next budget for paid internship of student. On this occasion, as many as 178 degrees were distributed among the students of Doctor of Pharmacy. Student Saba Zia got gold medal for standing first in the degree while Hafiz Muhammad Irfan Nazar got gold medal on showing outstanding performance in industrial pharmacy.
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