ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT )
Minister of State congratulated the 273 privileged recipients of the laptops under the Prime Minister’s Youth Laptop Scheme. Eng. Mohammad Baleeg ur rehman said that this laptop scheme was started in Punjab under the PML (N) government and after coming into power in 2013, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif continued this scheme across Pakistan besides needless opposition of some political parties.
It is very important to equip our youth with these latest gadgets in order to make them competitive in this global era, stated the Minister. And it is our collective responsibility to think about our youth and their educational needs regardless of any political differences. Minister of State said that such schemes have been imitated in other Asian countries as well, even students of developed countries like USA wish for such progressive schemes from their government. So none could undermine the importance of Prime Minister’s Youth Development schemes, emphasized the Minister. Moreover he talked about the vision and strategy of 4 Es (Extremism, Energy, Education, and Economy) of the present government, and said that we have seen remarkable improvement in each of the elements in this regard. Pakistan is in this position now to ask those countries “to do more” who used to ask this same thing from Pakistan, economy of Pakistan is improving besides the global financial crunch, said the Minister.
1 Lac Laptops out of the 5 lac laptops of the scheme have been distributed so far. 2500 laptops were given to AIOU students of M.Phil, PhDs, Masters and Graduation students on merit this year, stressed the Minister. There is no personal biased or discretion of any government official in this regard. Around Rs. 1 billion is being spent on this scheme year per year, and the company who has been given the contract for this year is Haier which was asked to assemble its plant in Pakistan. They have started assembling mobile phones as well in our country now which has given impetus to employment here and have improved the image of Pakistan abroad, said the Minister.
In the end Minister of State said that Government faces fiscal crunch yet it comes up with the most beneficial schemes for its people specially the students, this scheme is one of those schemes which should be valued in true regard. He added that he expects from students to properly utilize these laptops for their studies and research.
Event was attended by VC AIOU Dr. Shahid Siddiqui, and representatives of HEC and AIOU.
