Affirmative action: ‘Educated youth key to desired social change’

Cheques distributed under Prime Minister’s Fee Reimbursement Scheme.

MULTAN:

The youth are builders of Pakistan and future... they should help make the country a prosperous and enlightened state, Maryam Nawaz, chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, said on Tuesday.

She was speaking at a function at the Bahauddin Zakariya University to distribute cheques among students from less-developed areas of southern Punjab. The assistance for the students came from the Prime Minister’s Fee Reimbursement Scheme.

Nawaz urged the youth to seek higher education and help eradicate corruption and sectarianism from society.

She said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took keen interest in providing education facilities for the youth.

“The prime minister believes that no student should have to quit due to financial constraints,” she said.

The government would reimburse fees paid by the students of less-developed areas before the month of Ramazan, she said.

Nawaz said the government would provide 100,000 laptops every year to students of MA, MS, MPhil and PhD programmes. She said the government was working on a scheme for skill development.

She said terrorism was a major concern.

“Terrorists do not want us to progress. Incidents like the recent attack on Karachi airport are aimed at destabilising the country,” she said.

She said the government was committed to eradicating terrorism. “We will get rid of the menace in a few years,” she said.

Nawaz said the government was working on a war footing to deal with the energy crisis. “Efforts are underway to end load shedding in a few years.”



She said the development of southern Punjab, particularly Multan, was the government’s top priority. “Several development projects have been announced for the region. These will help improve standards of living in less-developed areas.”

She said after Lahore and Rawalpindi, the Metro Bus Service would be launched in Multan. She credited the provincial government with improving the urban infrastructure in Multan.

Higher Education Commission Chairman Mukhtar Ahmad said the Prime Minister’s Fee Reimbursement Scheme would enable the needy students continue their studies.

“It will help them get higher education... an educated youth can help bring about the desired socio-economic changes in society,” he said.

Bahauddin Zakariya University Vice Chancellor Khwaja Alqammah said the country could not progress without education.

Provincial Minister Abdul Waheed, National Assembly member Abdul Ghaffar Dogar, MPA Shehzad Maqbool Bhutta, Bahauddin Zakariya University Registrar Malik Munir Hussain and deans of several departments attended the ceremony.

Earlier, Nawaz distributed cheques among 4,821 students from six educational institutions.

In the first phase of the scheme, cheques would be distributed among 3,097 students of Bahauddin Zakariya University, 331 students of Comsats’s Vehari campus and 292 students of the NUML.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2014.