PM says opportunities to be created for youth despite austerity plan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stated that the government would provide employment opportunities to the youth by disbursing loans to them under Prime Minister’s Youth Loans Scheme.

The premier stated this after launching a freelancer card in collaboration with the Bank of Punjab and distributing cheques among the successful applicants of the Prime Minister’s Youth Loan Scheme.

He said although the economy was passing through a very difficult time and he presented an austerity plan to the nation but that did not mean that the government would forget the youth in whose hands was the future of the country.

He said that despite all those challenges youth would not be disappointed and opportunities would be created for them. He said the future of the country was in the hand of the youth. He said that Rs200 billion would be saved through the austerity plan and saving of the funds would be used to create opportunities for the youth.

The premier said the recovery of loans from youth was 99 percent, adding the rich had gotten their loans written off.

The prime minister said that loans being disbursed under Prime Minister’s Youth Programme was a continuation of the programme of 2013 initiated by the then prime minister.

The prime minister said his government would provide laptops to position-holder students across the country on merit basis.

The prime minister said that laptops would be distributed among brilliant position-holder students of Punjab, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan etc. The premier said that one hundred thousand laptops would be distributed among the position-holder students.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Youth Affairs Shaza Fatima Khawaja said the Bank of Punjab, HBL, and ZTBL were main partners and they had shown expeditious disbursement under the programme. The NADRA chairman is helping in verification.

The government would disburse Rs30 billion till June 2023 among 40,000 people with half of them in agriculture farmer and remaining in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023