LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday told a delegation of youth about his government’s endeavours for their betterment.

 “Young generation is the custodian of the future of Pakistan.  That’s why; historic steps have been taken by the government to secure the future of youth wherein a revolutionary project like computer labs is also being completed speedily,” the CM said.

He said the government is taking measures to train youth so that they can cope with challenges being faced by the country.

He said: “The government is carrying out laptops distributing among talented students on merit. So far, thousands of laptops costing billions of rupees have been distributed while position-holders were sent to foreign visits. Students belonging to all the federating units are included in these programmes to promote national unity.”

Shehbaz said Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF) was established to help continue the education of needy students and thousands of students are benefitting from fund.

He said Pakistan is lucky that more than 60 percent of its population consists of youth and added that they are a ray of hope for national development.

He said the journey of development will be go on by empowering this major chunk of the population.

He said hundreds of students are learning the Chinese language in China and delegation of students is also sent to Turkey to study Turkish language. He also mentioned Punjab Skills Development Programme and vowed to make the youth empowered.

Presiding over a review meeting the CM said thousands of people are getting benefits from the Chief Minister Punjab Self-employment Scheme as the initiative helped bring betterment

“The Punjab government has given interest-free loans to more than 1.7 million families so far. As much as Rs36.70 billion has been given as interest-free loans and the rate of return of these loans is 99.96 percent. During the current fiscal year, an additional amount of Rs2 billion has been allocated for the provision of interest-free loans under the Chief Minister Punjab Self-employment Scheme” he added.

Head of Akhuwat Dr Amjad Saqib gave a briefing about the provision of interest-free loans. Provincial Minister Sheikh Allauddin, spokesman Punjab government Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan, chief secretary and other senior officials joined the meeting.