Prestigious educational institutions: seats for Balochistan's talented students raised to 500

A meeting with Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in the chair, decided to increase the number of seats from 150 to 500 for the talented students from Balochistan in the prestigious educational institutions of the country, Prime Minister Gilani, while addressing a meeting on 'Prime Minister's Programme for the Talented Students of Balochistan at the PM House, said education was the most fundamental for human development, particularly in less developed provinces.
The Prime Minister said in order to give a jump start to education amongst Balochistan's youth, an ambitious programme had been undertaken in all 30 districts. Under the programme, the selected students would receive education from Class 8 to intermediate at prestigious institutions of the country. At a later stage, a linkage can be developed with higher education for the beneficiaries of this scheme, the Prime Minister added.
He said he was pleased to note that despite very tight timeframe, the Capital Administration and Development Division achieved the target of getting admission for 150 students in the first year of the scheme in 2011. He said it was for the first time that girl students of Balochistan from all 30 districts were availing the facility of quality education at the expenses of Federal Government at reputed educational institutions of the country.
The Prime Minister said, "We look forward to develop leadership qualities, morality and ethics, besides national cohesion through these students as goodwill ambassadors of Balochistan." Appreciating the efforts of all those who had worked hard to make this programme a success, the Prime Minister said he would also like to underscore the importance of making it financially and administratively sustainable.
Those, who attended the meeting, included Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Minister for Capital and Administrative Development, Hazar Khan Bajarani, Minister for Inter Provincial Co-ordination, Mrs Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, Principal Secretary to PM, Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, Secretary CAD, Farooq Ahmad Awan, Secretary Information Technology, Rana Asad Amin, Acting Secretary Finance, Anis-ul-Hasnain Musavi, Secretary IPC, Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad, Chief Secretary Balochistan, Ahmad Bux Lehri, Secretary Wafaqai Mohtasib, Saeed Ahmad Khan, Former Secretary IT, Junaid Iqbal Choudhry, Former Secretary CAD and other officials.