Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said on Monday that development in the province was the central priority of his government.
"To move forward, we renounced the culture of petty victimisation which damaged us in the past and diverted us from progress," he said while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the 30th annual convention-2004 of Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Pakistan (IEEEP) at the Wapda auditorium here.
The Chief Minister said his government had identified education as the way to reach the goal of overall prosperity and public well being.
He said engineers were the cornerstone of a country's development as they made things work.
Punjab CM said the renowned philanthropist Sir Ganga Ram, who died 80 years ago, was an engineer by profession. "He not only built the Ganga Ram hospital, but also designed the buildings, which house Aitchison College, Lahore High Court, Lahore Museum and the GPO," he added.
Pervaiz Elahi said the strength of Pakistan lay in its talent pool of technical skilled people. Even without formal education, our people had a natural talent for innovating, improvising and designing, he observed.
The Chief Minister assured the Punjab government would continue to endorse the aspirations of the engineering community.
Wapda Chairman Tariq Hameed, IEEEP President Chaudhry Asghar Ali Randhawa and IEEEP Honorary Secretary General Agha Nazim Ali were present on the occasion. IEEEP President presented the keynote address on this occasion.