PM Shehbaz calls for unity, joint efforts to rid country of poverty

KARACHI, JULY 26 (DNA) — Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that some ‘ill-wishers’ wanted Pakistan to default but it did not happen. The prime minister was addressing a laptop distribution ceremony among youngsters in Karachi on Wednesday.

 He said that the Pakistani young people possessed lots of talent. We should harness our youth’s talent, he added. He lamented that some ‘ill-wishers’ were using ‘magic’ so that country could default, but they did not succeed in their efforts. He said if his party comes to power again, his government would distribute 1 million laptops among youth.

“This is how the revolution will come… This is the only way to make the nation progress,” the prime minister told the ceremony also attended by Sindh governor, chief minister, federal ministers, MQM leaders, provincial ministers, diplomats, and representatives of bankers. He said youths from across the country needed to be equipped with education and provided maximum resources for country’s swift progress.

Mentioning the launch of the capital venture initiative for freelancers on Tuesday, he lauded the youngsters’ talent for developing the projects like converting banana peels into different products and drones for agricultural use.

He said it would be sheer injustice if the talented youths were not provided with the required resources as they were the guarantee for the country’s prosperity. He said that the poor were already crushed under the burden of inflation, now the rich should shoulder the burden.

PM Shehbaz said that under the Prime Minister Youth Programme, the young people were being given Rs7.5 million loan. He said the incumbent government was in the process of distributing 100,000 laptops announced for the fiscal 2022-23 while the provision for another 100,000 laptops had been made in the budget 2023-24 which would be distributed purely on merit, without any nepotism.

PM Shehbaz said the caretaker government should also ensure the merit in laptops’ distribution while keeping in view the excellence and enrollment in public sector universities as the only criterion. He said through hand-holding, the talented youths could bring in billions of dollars to the country within a short span of time which other industries could not do.

The prime minister also thanked the commercial banks for distributing Rs30 billion among youth within a few months in the form of business loans. Calling the existing volume of loans insufficient, he called for formulating a policy to make it mandatory for the banks to extend loan facilities to youth, farmers, and small shopkeepers.

 He said the previous government gave away $3 billion in loans to business tycoons without thinking of the youngsters. He appreciated the initiation of IT education programme at Sindh Governor House for youngsters. He said if we wanted Pakistan to make progress then it was necessary that we would make our youth skillful and independent.

Prime Minister Shehbaz said that the youngsters who were given laptops in Sindh, they belonged to the far-flung areas of the province. He vowed to provide all possible sources in the education sector.

Prime Minister Shehbaz also called for national unity and concerted efforts to rid the country of poverty as a robust mechanism in the form of a Special Investment Facilitation Council had already been established with a view to putting the country on the course towards economic restructuring and reforms.

He said the country could never progress without curbing corruption, power, and gas theft. He said the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) would take the country to the destination that the forefathers had dreamt of.

The prime minister appreciated the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for carrying out youth welfare projects and Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori for arranging courses for the youngsters at the Governor House. He also thanked Minister for IT and Telecommunications Syed Aminul Haq for his hard work in the ministry to move the projects forward as well as SAPM Shaza Fatima Khawaja.

Addressing the ceremony, Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah said the Sindh government was also executing similar projects for youth’s welfare in the province. He said 70pc of the beneficiaries of laptop and business loans were women as the provincial government strongly believed in women’s empowerment.

He told the gathering that through the public-private partnership, the provincial government would establish a Technology Park at NED University that would cost Rs 25 billion. — DNA