ISLAMABAD, July 14 (APP): A high-level meeting was held at Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage to review the preparations for Special Azadi Train launch in connection with Independence Day celebrations to be observed on August 14.

The meeting was jointly chaired by Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Senator Pervaiz Rashid and Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique.

Senator Pervaiz Rashid said that Independence Day would be celebrated in a befitting manner and urged all national institutions to play their role in highlighting the national ideology.

Khawaja Saad Rafique said that this year more elaborate arrangements will be made for Azadi Train. He said that Azadi Train route and schedule will be publicized in both print and electronic media to ensure participation of the common man.

The meeting was informed that the train will start from Peshawar and terminate at Karachi by mid of September after passing from all four provinces.

Senior officials from PTV,PBC and APP briefed the meeting about their plans of coverage of the events related to Azadi Train.

The meeting was attended by Secretary IB&NH Syed Imran Gardezi and Secretary Cabinet Division Nadeem Hassan Arif. Senior officials from the Ministries of Information and Railways and attached departments were also present in the
meeting.

ISLAMABAD, July 14 (APP): National Assembly Standing Committee on Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Thursday appreciated the role of Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), the premier news agency,  in projecting soft image of the country abroad and countering the  anti-state propaganda effectively.

The committee meeting, chaired by Pir Muhammad Aslam Bodla,  also underlined the need for further improving its working by  equipping the organization with the latest equipment and mode  of communication.

Managing Director APP Masood Malik said, being a state news agency, APP not only ensures coverage of the government policies  but also efficiently covers parliamentary and political activities,  taking place across the country.

He said the hallmark of the professional activities of the
national news agency is transmission of authentic, unbiased and  credible news.

Executive Director of APP Suhail Ali Khan gave a detailed
briefing about the mechanism of the agency’s news gathering in multi-languages, its transmission to subscribers – newspapers,  television channels and foreign news agencies.

Answering a query of MNA Murad Saeed, the MD said APP
is giving coverage to the government and opposition parties
without any bias. However, he added newspapers and media houses  publish and cover news items as per their editorial policies.

He said development activities are given extensive
coverage, irrespective of any distinction of the government
and opposition.

Replying to another question, Masood Malik said the
agency is making all-out efforts to clear all dues of its
employees, adding that it recently paid arrears of 20 percent
salary increase, which was pending since 2012.

In reply to a question of MNA Arifa Khalid Parvez, the
MD said APP has been effectively tackling the anti-state
propaganda by engaging Pakistani diplomats and missions abroad.

He made it clear that the process of filling the foreign
correspondents posts would be completed soon.

Accordingly, a  summary for foreign correspondents posting in London, New Delhi  and Beijing has been sent to the Prime Minister for approval,  he added.

The committee was informed that authentic, comprehensive
and factual coverage of events of public interest is the hallmark  of the organization, and news are being supplied in different  regional languages including Pushto, Saraiki, Brahvi, Balochi  and Sindhi besides English, Urdu and Arabic languages.

The committee was also briefed that the organization  was giving extensive coverage to national events, parliamentary
proceedings, sports and cultural activities, development projects  and public events, besides supplying news features, photos and  video footage to subscribers.

Currently, the APP network is working at Tehsil and
District level, while it has nine bureaus and seven stations
across the country.

The meeting was informed that APP had its correspondents
in Washington, London, New Delhi and Beijing, and stringers in  New York, Dhaka and Brussels. Besides, it has the plan to expand  its base abroad covering Jeddah, Ankara, Dubai, Tehran, Moscow,  Kabul and Colombo.

The body was apprised that APP’s existing staff strength
was 957 including interns, daily-wagers, contractual employees,  while its expenditures were Rs 943.412 million for the year  2016-17.

Its budgetary grant is Rs 750 million and own income
through subscription is Rs 17.500 million, whereas the agency’s  current shortfall is Rs 175.912 million and outstanding  liabilities are of Rs 273 million.

The committee was also informed about APP’s news exchange agreements with around 35 foreign news agencies.

The body was briefed that APP is planning to launch news
service in other important languages besides further augmenting  Video News Service (VNS) and building professional capacity of  editorial staffers.

It has established a social media desk, and acquired DSNG
for live transmission to subscribers. It is making efforts to link  the grant of ABC certification to newspapers with APP subscription  besides payment of advertisement dues with payment of subscription  to APP.

It has also developed Android application for overseas
marketing and advertisement and established modern studio
facilities.

The meeting was attended among others by MNAs Shakir Bashir Awan, Waseem Akhtar Shaikh, Parveen Masood Bhatti, Arifa Khalid  Parvez, Syed Amir Ali Shah Jamote, Belum Hasnain, Murad Saeed,  Muhammad Azhar Khan Jadoon, Naeema Kishwer Khan and Malik  Muhammad Aamir Dogar.

Director Coordination Muhammad Naeem Chaudhry and Director Information Technology Ghawas Khan assisted Managing Director Masood Malik in the meeting.

The committee also condemned the recent statement of former  T20 captain Shahid Afridi’s about cricket talent in Pakistan.

Later, talking to APP, the committee member Arifa Khalid
Parvez appreciated the working of APP on national issues and  stressed the need to project true image of the country in a  more efficient manner.

Belum Hasnain said media had a great role in tackling
the challenges of modern times with state of art equipment
and trained workforce.

She was of the view that opposition parties were not
given appropriate coverage.

Parveen Masood Bhatti was highly appreciative of the
briefing given by the APP management.

She suggested that APP correspondents at Tehsil and
District level should be made more active so that social
issues at the grassroots level could be highlighted and
solved promptly.

ISLAMABAD, Jul 14 (APP): Federal Minister for Planning , Development  and Reform, Ahsan Iqbal Thursday directed Capital Administration and Development Authority (CADD) to make Smart School Project a flagship and develop the education system in Islamabad on the lines that it would be model for the whole country .

“Smart ‘schools for tomorrow’, is the vision of current government and  for this we need to utilize the blended learning methods for students to inspire creativity in them,” he said while chairing the high level meeting to review the progress on SMART schools.

The meeting was attended by State Minister for CADD, Dr Tariq Fazal  Chaudhary and other officials of CADD division and Ministry of Planning.

Ahsan Iqbal complimented Tariq Fazal Chaudhry for strongly pursuing  the establishment of SMART schools which is one of the major step towards first goal of Vision 2025, i.e. Human and Social Capital.

Under this project 32 schools will be transformed into SMART school by  employing blended learning.

Out of 32 schools 24 will be chosen from ICT 8 will be chosen from the  provinces.

The project is a pilot which is aimed at bringing a paradigm shift by  introducing computer based learning experience in education for children of government schools.

Although education is a devolved subject but federal government is  playing its supportive role to bring innovation in education, Minister Ahsan Iqbal said.

He further said that the project is part of education reforms of Prime  Minister, which aims at “better schools” for tomorrow.

The Minister noted that SMART schools project was originally initiated  in 1999 and if it would have continued then by now we would have 3000 SMART schools in the country, but toppling of democratic government stalled the process.

Minister said that Smart School project will revolutionize the
education system and contribute to promote the creativity and innovation among students.

The success of the project lies in better and efficient use of
technology, he said adding the smart school is about employing technology to improve learning outcomes of students and brighten them chances of better livelihood.

Minister said that the success of this project depends upon the  training of teachers and head masters .

Teachers should be trained to give their best to students , he said  adding that the smart school project would be role model for other provinces to follow .

He also highlighted the major initiatives taken in the education  sector by the government .

“We have launched National Curriculum reforms, Examination System  Reforms and Transformational teacher training initiatives for bringing radical changes in the education sector,” he added.

On the occasion, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary appreciated the innovative  idea of Ministry of Planning and assured that his ministry would provide the required resources to implement this project .

The scheme basically relates to improvement in the quality of  education and is an important ingredient of Vision 2025.

The project of worth Rs 677 million would be completed in 36 months  and it would help to bring improvement in education quality through technology-enabled learning in government schools from class 3 to 8.

This project would enable 32 government schools (16 boys + 16 girls  schools) in the country with relevant technology infrastructure to implement blended learning.

The project aim to change the culture and practices by moving away  from memory-based learning designed for the average student to an education that stimulates thinking and creativity in students.

ISLAMABAD, Jul 14 (APP): Federal Minister for Science and Technology,  Rana Tanveer Hussain Thursday said a proposal was under consideration to establish an International Engineering Academy to improve skills of young engineers of Pakistan.

He stated this during addressing the 24th annual general meeting of Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) here.

The minister chaired the inaugural session of the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, he appreciated the efforts of the present  administration of Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) for creating young job opportunities for engineers.

The PEC, he said, was a welfare body for the young engineers and its  various reforms have started to bear fruits. The engineers have critical role to play in development of country, he said, adding that the ministry would support them to convene their convention.

Rana Tanveer urged the young engineer to look at broader national  perspective and break the shackles of self interest for the prosperity of the country.

He said the country’s talent has capability and capacity at
individual level and we need to take it to exploit at international level.

The minister said “I have performed my duty to ensure conducting a  fair and free elections for PEC governing body as we believe in fair and transparent system.”

Addressing the meeting earlier, Chairman PEC Eng. Javed Saleem  Qureshi said the council was making efforts on three point agenda  including provision of service structure for engineers, appointments of engineers as head of technical and engineering departments.

He said development couldn’t be achieved without the role of
engineers in the country.

Qureshi urged the engineer community to support the PEC for their rights.

ISLAMABAD, July 14 (APP): Minister for Planning, Development  and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal has said continuity of democratic system  was vital to strengthen institutions in the country.

Talking to a private news channel, he lauded the political
traditions and institutions in the United Kingdom (UK) and said there was a history of hundreds of years of rule of law with continuity to attain this position.

On the other hand in Pakistan, he said dictators had ruled
the country for more than 35 years and the democratic system had been halted many times. In a situation where martial laws were imposed, how institutions could have been strengthened in the country, he asked.

Ahsan Iqbal said,”It takes time to strengthen institutions,
therefore democracy should be given time.”

He said politics of agitation and sit-ins was a hurdle in the
country’s stability and growth of institutions so constructive
politics should be done by all political parties.

He said national resources were looted in the past while the
incumbent government had taken a number of steps to utilize sources with care. Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif slashed the size of Prime Minister House staff.

The minister said only politicians were easy target of
everyone to criticize for corruption while this menace existed in other departments as well.

He said current cabinet consisted of highly qualified,
professional and competent members and they were doing well in their areas.