‘Centre disbursed Rs5b under youth loans in Sindh’

SAPM Usman Dar says govt ensuring institutional arrangements for youth development

KARACHI:

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs Usman Dar assured the opportunities under Kamyab Jawan Programme to the youth of Sindh on Tuesday.

SAPM Usam Dar, while addressing a press conference along with Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh, said that Rs5 billion rupees had been disbursed in Sindh out of Rs10 billion of minimum disbursement target for the current financial year for the province.

He said that the government was ensuring institutional arrangements for the youth at all levels.

Dar said that Rs100 billion had been earmarked in the form of loans to the youth of Pakistan in the ongoing financial year, and Rs32 billion had been issued to thousands of entrepreneurs to start their businesses.

Kamyab Jawan's business loans scheme has given Rs3 billion to young entrepreneurs of Karachi alone, which resulted in the establishment of more than 600 startups and the creation of over 3,000 jobs. He said that around 5,000 retail outlets started businesses across the country, while 1,200 retail outlets began business in Karachi despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SAPM said that Rs800 million were disbursed in Hyderabad, Rs390 million in Larkana, Rs32 million in Sukkur, Rs25 million in Shaheed Benazirabad, Rs13 million in Mirpurkhas.

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Usman Dar added that 7000 plus scholarships amounting under the project to Rs43 million had been awarded in Sindh. Dar said that youth development centres would be set up in 108 public sector universities to facilitate over two million university students to explore opportunities in the Information Technology sector.

The federal government wanted to expedite the KJP and in the first phase, Karachi's youth was focused upon while the next phase will include the rest of the Sindh.

KJP is a transparent programme having a financially prudent mechanism and with all its data available online and made public for accountability, he said and added that previous government used to put forward politically motivated programs of meager cash assistance and narrow scoped vocational training programmes which only offered skills like plumbing and electrician but PM Imran Khan has presented a programme that enables youth to benefit from high skill training in modern technology.

KJP is determined to engage, educate and empower youth through initiatives like business loan programs, skill for all scholarships, and positive youth engagement through National Youth Council, he stated.

He stressed on Sindh government to step forward and join hands for the welfare and progress of youth of the province instead of impeding the opportunities being provided to the youth just for the sake of political antagonism as they were doing in case of issuance of Health Card to people of Sindh.

Dar said, under the sports talent hunt project, a trial of football players is being held at KPT ground for the final selection of players from the 100 shortlisted aspirants, adding that the selected young players would be trained by St. Patrick Club and they would also be sent to Ireland for training.

Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly and senior PTI leader Haleem AdIl Sheikh speaking at the occasion highly appreciated the initiatives launched for youth employment under the umbrella of Kamyab Jawan Programme and said that new vistas of career development were opened for the youth.

It was for the first time in the history of Pakistan that confidence was entrusted in the youth of the country and they were being assisted to start up their own businesses, he said adding that youth of Sindh should avail themselves the business loans which were being provided in a transparent manner purely on merit.

Haleem Adil Sheikh said that Rs5 billion were disbursed to 2,819 young entrepreneurs of Sindh so far under the initiative. He said that besides disbursement of Rs3 billion to the youth of Karachi, Rs800 million were disbursed in the Hyderabad division, Rs390 million in the Larkana division, Rs32 million in Sukkur division, Rs.25 in Shaheed Benazirabad division, and Rs13 million in the Mirpurkhas division in Sindh.

He said that federal government also disbursed Rs60 billion under Ehsas Emergency Cash Assistance to people of Sindh and issued Health cards to citizens of underdeveloped Tharparkar district.

On the other hand, the Sindh government was reluctant of issuing health card to the people of the province and was hampering their access to better health facilities, he noted.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2022.