Opportune initiative: Apna Rozgar Scheme to emancipate nation’s youth, says Shahbaz

Says those staging sit-ins should abandon their negative attitude

LAHORE:

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Tuesday approved the Apna Rozgar Scheme for the unemployed youth of the province.

Vehicles will be provided to those eligible on soft terms under the scheme. Sharif said an additional 10 per cent quota had been reserved in the scheme for residents of south Punjab. He said the initiative would provide the unemployed with a respectable source of livelihood. Sharif said the scheme would start this month. The chief minister said the scheme would be run transparently and all decisions regarding it would be taken on merit. He said the country’s youth were a precious asset whose potential was being harnessed now by providing them with a respectable opportunity. Sharif also inspected the vehicles that are to be given to the youth under the scheme.

Separately, several lawmakers from across the province met the chief minister on Tuesday.

The chief minister said those staging sit-ins at Islamabad’s D-Chowk were wasting the nation’s time and advised them to abandon their cynical attitude. He said Pakistan was passing through a critical phase in its history and fighting problems like an energy shortage and religious extremism. He said the country could not afford the politics of polarisation at such a juncture.



Sharif said divisive politics and the sit-ins had increased the challenges confronting the people.

He said only those nations had progressed and prospered that were singularly devoted to the cause. Sharif said his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government was trying to overcome the challenges confronting the people and had served the public selflessly.

The chief minister urged the lawmakers to remain in touch with their constituents and strive to solve their problems. Cooperatives Minister Iqbal Channar and lawmakers Faisal Farooq Cheema, Hussain Jehanian Gardezi, Sardar Bhadur Khan Mekan, Ehsanul Haq Bajwa, Chaudhry Muhammad Akram and Pir Khizar Hayat Shah Khagga were among those who called on the chief minister.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2014.