Retaining focus: ‘Education, healthcare remain foremost priorities’

Chief minister says revolutionary reforms introduced in these sectors

LAHORE:

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Friday that ensuring the provision of quality education and healthcare would continue to remain the government’s chief priorities in 2016.

Sharif made the remarks while speaking to lawmakers affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).  The chief minister said there would be no paucity of resources when it came to the provision of quality education and healthcare. He said the government had provided billions of rupees in funds for providing the people with state-of-the-art education and healthcare.

The chief minister said developing the health and education sectors on a strong premise was the government’s priority. He said no stone was being left unturned in this regard. Sharif said revolutionary reforms had been introduced in the health and education sectors.

He said provision of basic amenities across schools was being ensured under a reforms programme. The chief minister said comprehensive measures had been taken to ensure teachers’ and students’ attendance. Sharif said the young were a national asset and governmental efforts to revamp the education sector had yielded positive results. The chief minister said education was not only a weapon against terrorism, religious extremism and sectarianism but also the secret of progress and development.

Sharif said funds spent on education should not be seen as an expense but as an investment in the nation’s future. The chief minister said the establishment of the Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF), the Daanish Schools, scholarships for gifted students, the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and international study tours were all revolutionary initiatives of the government. He said they had left a positive imprint on the education sector.

The chief minister said the fact that students from Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad Capital Territory had been included in these programmes was a note-worthy feature of the initiatives. He said the initiative had been taken to promote national unity and brotherhood. Sharif said gifted students from disadvantaged backgrounds had been getting education by PEEF scholarships and at Daanish Schools. He said over 100,000 students were enrolled across local and foreign educational institutions with the assistance of the PEEF.

Sharif said like education, healthcare was among the foremost priorities of the government. He said maximum resources had been devoted to ensuring the provision of quality healthcare to the people. The chief minister said state-of-the-art hospitals were being established across the province. He said health facilities across the tehsil and district headquarter levels were being upgraded. He said work was in progress on the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Transplant Institute and Research Centre. Sharif said a modern 60-bed hospital had been inaugurated at Bedian Road. He said quality healthcare was being provided to the people of south Punjab by Muzaffargarh’s  Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital.

The MNAs and MPAs present on the occasion eulogised the chief minister. They said the people had been deriving great benefit from the government’s mega projects. The lawmakers said the chief minister had taken trendsetting initiatives to revamp the health and the education sectors. They said the performance of public departments had been improving due to the government’s emphasis on transparency and merit.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2016.