The business community of Southern Punjab has appreciated the services of Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to facilitate the general public as well as business community, industrialists, manufacturers and hoped that these measures would alleviate the miseries of the common man. President of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry(MCCI) Fareed Mughis Sheikh said that it is a good news that Punjab government was spending a huge amount of Rs 850 billion on service delivery to citizens that is 12.9 percent higher than the budget allocation of Rs 753 billion in FY 2014-15.
It has also increased allocation for annual development programme from Rs 400 billion to Rs 550 billion 37 percent more than the outgoing year.
Fareed Mughis Sheikh said that bulk of the service delivery funds go to health and education sectors. Health sector gets Rs 149 billion while education sector pockets Rs 312 billion that is 2 percent of the GRP of Punjab. Eulogising the Punjab Government, he said the government was determined to provide quality educational services in the province.
The government vision for education sector includes: One hundred percent enrolment of schoolgoing age children, retention of all enrolled students from age 5 to 16, attaining gender parity, improvement in education standards, international standard infrastructure in schools, merit based recruitment of teachers, incentives for good performance, overcrowding in schools, provision of free education to 14,67,461 students under foundation assisted programme, provision of education to 3,10,918 students under education voucher scheme and provision of free education to 1,50,000 students under new school programme.