By APP
Lahore : Caretaker Prime Minister Muhammadmian Soomro has said that election process was held in a peaceful and transparent manner and transfer of power would take place soon.Briefly talking to newsmen after attending Talents Scholarships distribution ceremony among students of public sector universities in the provincial metropolis from Baitul Maal at Punjab University here on Saturday,he said, “decisions pertaining to different issues would be taken by new leadership.”
Governor Punjab Lt. Gen.(retd) Khalid Maqbool, Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Ejaz Nisar,Vice Chancellors of varsities whose students were given scholarship cheques, DG Baitul Maal Ahmed Nadeem Qadri and students were present on the occasion.
Earlier addressing students, he said, human resource is a great asset of the country and various programmes have already been initiated to fully utilise it for promoting economic activity to alleviate poverty and overcome unemployment.
He said during the last five years foundation has been laid for development of human resource by raising standard of education and imparting technical education with an aim to produce highly qualified and skilled manpower to be able to meet challenges of globalisation.
He said provision of scholarships is part of the plan aimed at ensuring that talented youth could continue their studies and play their role in the national development.
He said various programmes initiated by the government in education sector ensures that no talented student has to abandon his education only because of economic restraints.
He said in the present age of competition, “a country can have its due share in the international trade only by producing high quality products which are better than others.”
He said special attention has also been given to bring education in line with the requirements of industry besides giving due focus to research as it is also essential to ensure quality.
He hoped that next government would continue the policy of promoting education and development of skills adding that it would ensure sustainable economic development besides enabling country to have its due share in the international market.
Referring to various initiatives taken for utilisation of human capital for development and promotion of economic activity, he said “It is humble beginning and if efforts in this regard continued we as a nation would not only be able to meet challenges of globalisation but also take full advantage of it.”
He said faculty members are pivot of education system and government fully realises their importance and has taken effective steps to facilitate them and improve their financial condition.
He said side by side with equipping youth with education and skills, various schemes like micro credit scheme were launched to generate economic activity leading to alleviation of poverty and mitigating unemployment.
Appreciating services of Governor Punjab Lt Gen (retd) Khalid Mabqool in the field of education, he said he was impressed by the progress made by education sector under the guidance of the governor.
He lauded the role of Baitul Maal in social sector especially in the fields of education and health.
Speaking on the occasion Governor said under the guidance of President Pervez Musharraf special attention was given to education sector with billions of rupees provided to each university as development funds.
He said ,”the amount provided to universities as development funds was 100 times more than what was given to them previously.”
He said while government fully supported private sector to play its role in promotion of education,it gave due attention to improve standard of private sector educational institutions especially higher seats of learnings.
However, he said , while public universities have been equipped to impart international standard education, tuition fee of the same have not been revised upward even once during last seven years.
He said it speaks of commitment on the part of the government to impart high quality education to the children of people belong to middle and lower class to be able to compete with those graduating from private sector varsities whose fees are out of their reach.
Later, Prime Minister Muhammadmian Soomro gave away cheques of scholarships to students.
The varsities whose students were given scholarships are; University of the Punjab, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, government College university Lahore,University of Education Lahore,University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore and Lahore College for Women university.
Briefly speaking on the occasion Director General Baitul Maal Ahmed Nadim Qadri said that funds provided by Baitul Maal department and have nothing to do with Zakat and ushr adding that like other departments, allocations for the Baitul Maal department are made from tax money by the government in the budget.
He also spoke about various programmes being carried out by Baitul Maal in social welfare sector especially in education and health.