The Chief Minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, has directed officials to take steps to build a girls’ hostel at the University of Sahiwal and restore scholarships for nurses.
She issued the directives while addressing a ceremony for the distribution of laptops and ‘Honhaar Scholarship’ cheques at the university.
Congratulating students and their parents, Maryam Nawaz paid tribute to teachers and families for their role in helping students succeed.
“I salute the parents who have given the nation a talented generation to be proud of,” she said.
The chief minister said nurses and students of religious seminaries had been included in government schemes for the first time.
Under the Work for Punjab program, university graduates were being offered internships with monthly stipends of Rs.60,000 to Rs. 65,000. The government was also considering assigning responsibilities to graduates of schools, colleges and universities.
CM Punjab said educational institutions across Punjab were being equipped with facilities including washrooms, drinking water and artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
She added that 500,000 young people had received skills training over the past two years. Skilled workers travelling abroad were also being offered assistance, including travel tickets, through the ‘Parwaaz Card scheme’.
She said she had personally interviewed candidates in batches of 10 before appointing vice-chancellors on merit at every university in Punjab.
“I do not accept recommendations, even if they come from my own home,” she said.
The chief minister said urban development should not be limited to Lahore, adding that Sahiwal, Okara and Pakpattan deserved similar attention.
She said Punjab had received the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award for its low-cost housing initiative, which she described as the world’s fastest such scheme.
According to Maryam Nawaz, 300,000 acres of land were being provided to landless people for cultivation.
She said the government was delivering medicines to patients at their homes for periods of up to two months and providing treatment to workers at their workplaces to help them avoid losing daily wages.
Services such as birth certificate registration were also being delivered to people’s homes through the ‘Maryam Ki Dastak program’, she added.
Maryam Nawaz said 30 million people had benefited from the Clinic on Wheels initiative, while Water and Sanitation Agencies (WASAs) and Parks and Horticulture Authorities (PHAs) had been established in every district.
She said the government had issued one million Kisan Cards and provided 30,000 tractors to farmers, while Livestock Cards were being introduced to support livestock owners. Students from other provinces had also been allocated a quota under the laptop scheme.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif said children were being provided quality education and facilities comparable to those at Aitchison College through the Nawaz Sharif Schools of Eminence initiative.
Expressing deep sorrow over the deaths of innocent children after a school roof collapsed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, she said the tragedy had caused her profound grief.