Punjab

First lot: 800 laptops distributed in Sahiwal division

1,000 laptops will be distributed at a ceremony in Multan today.

Owais Jafri January 28, 2013

Students said the drive will encourage students to take their education and careers seriously.

MULTAN:

As many as 802 laptops were distributed by the Punjab government among students in the Sahiwal division. One hundred students from the Sahiwal Medical College, 377 from Government Postgraduate College in Sahiwal, 193 from Government College for Women in Sahiwal, 48 from Government College in Pakpattan, 24 from Government College in Arifwala and 60 from Government College in Okara got the laptops.

The ceremony was held at the Government Postgraduate College’s Jinnah Auditorium. More than 2,000 students from cross the division attended the ceremony. This was the first distribution ceremony in Sahiwal since the Punjab government started its laptop campaign in 2011.

PML-N MNA Hamza Shahbaz presided over the ceremony. Special Assistant to Chief Minister for Higher Education Zaeem Qadri was also present.

Addressing the ceremony, Shahbaz said that the PML-N will continue to focus on the development of education and health sectors.

“We have not been issuing political statements only. We have actually served the people without any discrimination.”

Qadri said that no one could deny the transparency of the laptop scheme under which more than one million laptops had been distributed among students in the Punjab.

Director of Colleges (Sahiwal division) Dr Farkhanda Shakeel said that the government had given a boost to the students’ confidence.

Talking to The Express Tribune after the ceremony, she hoped that the laptop distribution will stop brain drain from the province. She said students from the rural and the urban areas had been treated equally.

Some students said they had been given “more than their expectations”.

“We thought the government was only distributing laptops in private colleges and universities in bigger cities,” a student at Government College, Arifwala, said while talking to The Express Tribune.

Students said the drive will encourage students to take their education and careers seriously. They said it was an inspiration for students who could not afford to buy laptops.

Some 1,000 laptops will be distributed at a ceremony in Multan on Tuesday. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is expected to preside over the ceremony.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2013.