Alumni of Danish schools call on CM

LAHORE, Apr 19 (APP):Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has said the plant of Daanish schools sown by the Punjab government in 2008-9 has grown up into a full-fledged tree.
He said that it has been providing necessary shelter and societal protection to thousands of deserving students to get higher education without being burdened. The credit goes to the PML-N government which envisioned Daanish schools and materialised it, he added.
The CM expressed these remarks while addressing the gathering of
students of Daanish schools enrolled in institutions of higher learning, who called on him, here on Thursday.
The chief minister said that Daanish schools played an important role in helping the penurious children to excel in life and the ministers, secretaries, PEEF and other line departments deserve accoladed for it.
The purpose of creation of Pakistan was to provide equal opportunities to all and sundry. These students would emerge as the architect of the nation to retire debts of the nation, he added.
The critics should realize facts and they should meet with these children to know about the shining results, he said and added that education is an equal right of every child and bridging the divide between the haves and have-nots is the need of the hour, the chief minister said.
Replying to a question about NAB, the Chief Minister said that NAB should fulfill its responsibilities at every cost. We are happy if NAB is activated and it should be welcomed. Transparent and indiscriminate accountability of all should be held as it rejuvenates the society.
If it is the approach of Chairman NAB then nobody would differ with it. Billions and trillions of rupees have been looted in the near past, he said. The nation should welcome the step if NAB is going to hold the accountability of it.
He said that we did not hide Saaf Pani Scandal as we believe in transparency and are answerable to the people along with Almighty Allah.
We lodged FIRs and the case was referred to the anti-corruption establishment but where was NAB then? He said that Punjab government had saved many hundred billion rupees in different projects by maintaining complete transparency.
The wheel of development had been moved with speed and the people who worked hard for national development should be appreciated by the nation for encouraging such citizens, he said.
Talking about Nandipur Power Project, the Chief Minister said that no bidding of this project was done which was amounting around 50, 60 billion rupees and the then government awarded the contract without any bidding. The court referred the case to NAB and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffari stated in his verdict that Babar Awan was responsible for the delay in that project. Billions of rupees had been wasted due to Babar Awan and the plant was left rusted at Karachi Port, he added.
He said that a dacoity of billions of rupees was tried to be made over the iron ore reserves in Chiniot and the case was referred to NAB on the orders of Lahore High Court in 2010. NAB closed it and gave a clean chit though. Now, it had been re-noticed which was a good thing. Similarly, a corruption of billions and trillions of rupees was made in NICL, rental power projects and EOBI, and if this money was recovered, then NAB will be appreciated, he added.
Replying to another question, he said that Schools Education Department had done a good job by giving admissions to lakhs of children adding that 90 thousand children of brick-kiln workers have also been given admissions who are getting free textbooks, uniforms and stipends. Such a good example does not exist even in India, he pointed out, he said.
The CM said three lakh 50 thousand needy students have been given stipends through PEEF and 26 lakh children had been enrolled in partner schools through Punjab Education Foundation. However, the province where it was claimed that a new Pakistan was in the making, the important sector of education was badly ignored. Similarly, no attention was paid to education sector in Sindh and Balochistan. Punjab government’s educational reforms could not be compared with other provinces because we had achieved mammoth successes in the field of education.
Replying to a question, the Chief Minister said that Bilawal Zardari had inquired from his uncle Imran that whom you were deceiving.
He said parliament, judiciary and establishment should be united to deal with the challenges being faced by the country because such challenges
cannot be dealt with by a single institution. Everyone should be
united to solve these problems and this way we can deal with them.
To another question, he said that we had to strengthen the system of justice and everyone will have to be united for the supremacy of justice.
The Daanish Schools alumni also spoke on the occasion and praised the vision of Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif.