ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said that the government was committed to empowering the youth of the country as empowering them was key to ensuring the development and prosperity of Pakistan.

Speaking at the launching ceremony of the laptop programme, he said that the youths of the country were capable enough to transform the country’s fate as with their hard work and dedication, they could help Pakistan develop at a faster pace, leaving its neighbouring country far behind in terms of economic development and prosperity.

Sharif said that the ceremony reminded him of the days when as Punjab chief minister he distributed hundreds of thousands of laptops among the students on merit.

He said that those laptops helped the students a lot during the Covid-19 pandemic days when they took their classes online while sitting at home and also earned their bread and butter by working as freelancers.

He recalled that as chief minister of Punjab, he had also provided scholarships to talented youth under Punjab Education Endowment Fund (PEEF), and the beneficiary of these programmes was now serving the country in various areas including health, IT, and engineering.

He said that this had been his mission to provide every youth with a laptop machine to enable them to successfully move forward in their respective areas.

In addition to the 100,000 laptops approved for the previous financial year, he added, he successfully obtained approval for an additional 100,000 laptops for the current fiscal year.

He said that the laptop distribution process would totally be on merit and no influence will be accepted in this regard.

For the youth from rural areas, he said the government had allocated Rs5 billion to provide agriculture loans, while another Rs5 billion had been allocated for the provision of skilled-based training to the youth.

The special assistant to the prime minister on youth affairs, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in its every tenure, had empowered the youth.

According to her, one million laptops had been distributed among talented students while over Rs100 billion in loans had also been provided to the youth to empower them since 2011.

She said that the prime minister would distribute 100,000 laptops among the students in the days to come, adding all-out efforts would be made to empower the youth of the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023