Giving approval to purchase 1.5 lakh laptops immediately during current financial year, the chief minister said process of procurement of laptops should be completed at the earliest and laptops of latest model should be purchased for students.
He said programme of distribution of laptops on merit was an important step towards empowering the youth.
He said the Punjab government had already distributed lakhs of laptops at a cost of billions of rupees among talented students while 1.5 lakh more laptops of billions of rupees would be distributed on merit during current financial year.
Shehbaz Sharif directed that no delay should be tolerated in matters of purchase of laptops and all the matters should be completed immediately in a transparent manner.
Youths were being harmonized with latest demands of present age with the distribution of laptops and becoming aware of new inventions and changing situation throughout the world through laptops, he added.
The Chief Minister said provision of resources for empowering the youth was a useful investment and the Punjab government would provide all-out resources for programmes of awareness of youth about modern knowledge.
He said benefitting from information technology was the need of the hour that was why effective steps had been taken for the promotion of information technology in the province.
Empowering youth through equipping them with modern knowledge was our mission, he added.
Shehbaz Sharif said the programme of distribution of laptops among youth on merit was yielding positive results.
He said education was the only way through which trends of extremism could be eliminated from the society.
The Punjab government had taken revolutionary steps for the promotion of quality education and modern knowledge, he added.
He said IT labs had been set up by spending billions of rupees in the schools of the province. He said more than 1.5 lakh talented girls and boys of resource-less families were studying in prestigious educational institutions through Punjab Educational Endowment Fund.
He said steps taken by the Punjab government for the promotion of education were becoming a source of reducing the gulf between the poor and the rich.
Provincial Minister for Higher Education Begum Zakia Shahnawaz, Chief Secretary, Chairman Planning & Development, Secretary Higher Education and concerned officials were present on the occasion.