Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif distributed cash prizes of Rs 180 million among position-holder boys and girls students in annual examination of matriculation and intermediate 2015 from across the country here on Friday.
The CM said it was a historic day as position holders from all over Pakistan have gathered at the Aiwan-e-Iqbal. Talented boy and girl students of Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Federal Board and Punjab were paid cash prizes.
Addressing the ceremony Shahbaz Sharif said that Punjab government had distributed cash prizes of more than one billion rupees among position-holder boy and girl students during the last eight years while one hundred thousand talented and deserving students are being given scholarships from the income of Punjab Educational Endowment Fund.
He said the number of these scholarships will be increased to two hundred thousand during the next one year, an important element of educational programmes of Punjab government is also that boy and girl students of Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Sindh and Federal Board Islamabad have also been included which is resulting in promotion of national unity, brotherhood and provincial harmony.
He said that thousands of talented students are pursuing their educational activities with the educational fund of Punjab government and they are becoming doctors, engineers, bankers, economists and serving the country, through the programmes of Punjab Education Foundation, children of poor families are being imparted modern education.
Shahbaz Sharif said in order to promote information technology, IT labs have been set up in high schools throughout the province while four 0.4 million laptops have been distributed among the students.
The Chief Minister said that textile exports of Bangladesh are higher than the total exports of Pakistan while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and other countries are far ahead of Pakistan in the field of education.
He said it is time to learn from the past mistakes and work hard for the achievement of national objectives. Shahbaz Sharif said that the project of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has become a reality and it is the guarantee to progress and prosperity of the country.
Provincial Ministers Rana Mashhood Ahmed, Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, Malik Nadeem Kamran, Begum Zakia Shahnawaz, Dr Farrukh, Members National and Provincial Assembly, Vice Chairman Punjab Educational Endowment Fund Dr Amjad Saqib, Chairman Punjab Higher Education Commission, educationists, intellectuals, columnists, vice chancellors of universities, teachers and a large number of students were present.