Incumbent govt’s tenure ends on Aug 14, says PM Shehbaz Sharif

ISLAMABAD: The tenure of the present government is ending on August 14 said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday, adding that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will then announce the dates for the next general election.

He was speaking at a ceremony organized to launch the Pakistan Endowment Fund for Education along with the incorporation of computer coding and constitutional studies in the national curriculum in Islamabad. He said that Rs 14 billion had been fixed for the program for next four years out of which Rs 3 billion would be spent during current fiscal year.

He expressed his wish to continue this project forever with increased funding to provide opportunities of higher education to maximum deserving students.

“Our government’s tenure is going to end in August and I pray that the next elected government should give top priority to the education sector,” he said, adding that funding for this program should be enhanced up to Rs 140 billion for next 10 years.

He recalled that he, as Chief Minister Punjab, launched the Punjab Education Endowment Fund (PEEF) in 2008 with an annual allocation of Rs 2 billion.

The prime minister said over 400,000 students benefited from this Fund who were now serving the country in different professions.

He said promotion of education was not aimed at politics but he consider it as worship. He vowed to pay special focus on the less developed areas of the country where the young people could not complete their studies due to lack of resources.

Today, he said the board meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was going to be held which would hopefully approve the $3 billion stand-by agreement with Pakistan.

“This is not a matter of pride but an alarming situation that why we always ask our friendly countries and the financial institutions to help us saving from default,” he added.

Now in any case, he said “we should face the situation and show determination to make serious efforts for the development and prosperity of the country”.

Giving the example of China, the prime minister said Pakistan could also regain its lost glory by paying special focus in various sectors especially on education.

He said China is Pakistan’s best friend that disbursed $5 billion in last three months while Saudi Arabia also sent $2 billion and another $1 billion would be received from UAE in a day or two.

Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also distributed the scholarships cheques under the newly launched project among the talented and deserving students.

Minister for Education and Professional Training Rana Tanvir Hussain said the program was designed in line with the Punjab Education Endowment Fund (PEEF) to provide merit based scholarships to the talented students of various fields including engineering, nursing, agriculture, social sciences and allied health sciences.

He said keeping in view the current situation, the government had also decided to include computer coding and constitutional studies in the national curriculum. He said under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, all the provinces agreed to the amended curriculum.

He said amendment in the national curriculum was need of the hour to provide the students quality education to help them playing their role in socio-economic development of the country.

Federal Secretary Education Waseem Ajmal informed that under the Pakistan Endowment Fund for Education, the scholarships would be provided to the students through Higher Education Commission (HEC) and National Endowment Scholarships for Talent (NEST). – News Agencies