Endowment fund: Education will reach all, says CM

PEEF marks distribution of Rs1 billion to students.

LAHORE:

The Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF) is one of the largest educational scholarship programmes in the world, Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif said on Wednesday.

Addressing a ceremony at the CM’s Secretariat to mark distribution of Rs1 billion through the PEEF, Sharif said over 30,200 students had benefited from the endowment fund. He said that the fund will be increased next year. He said that Pakistan’s future depended on its ability to educate its youth. He said that the apathy of the federal government in this regard was a crime. He said his government had taken up the education challenge through the endowment fund.

Ending ‘plundering’

“With billions of rupees misappropriated from public money, how can we complain if we lag behind Bangladesh? There is no money to provide for medicine for the diseased nor do we have funds for agriculture development,” he said.

He asked how the children of the poor could study with blackouts due to power outages.

Meals for the rich, morsels for the poor

“A flawed system has meant that the rich enjoy unfair privileges while the children of the poor feed on mere morsels,” he said. “This unjust system is destroying us.” He said that the country was created with the promise of an exploitation-free society.

“Every day Pakistanis wake up fearing another drone attack. Another drone attack follows before the ink on a parliamentary resolution opposing it is dry,” he said.

Look towards Islamabad

He said that the future could be better if those who ruled from Islamabad returned the wealth they had looted. He said that the electricity crisis could be resolved if a circular debt of Rs400 billion was paid.

Commenting on allegations made in the Mehran Bank scandal against his family, Sharif said that the ‘chief of liars’ had been vilifying him without any evidence.

“If it be proved that I got a loan or markup written off, I will resign,” he said.

Earlier, PEEF Vice Chairman Dr Amjad Saqib in his address of welcome said that Rs1 billion in scholarships will be given to deserving students next year.

PEEF scholarship recipients Amin Siddique from Taunsa Sharif, Abdul Qayyum from Balochistan, Monica Andleeb from Azad Kashmir, the mother of Awais Wasim, a chemical engineering student at Punjab University and Justice (retired) Amir Raza Khan also addressed the function.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2012.