Shehbaz says after assembly dissolution it’s ECP to announce dates for next elections n Launches Pakistan Endowment Fund for Education n Rejects Israel’s remarks on human rights condition in Pakistan n Calls for devising mechanism to lower prices of life-saving drugs.

 

ISLAMABAD  -  Prime Minister She­hbaz Sharif has said that their federal gov­ernment would end on August 14, adding the Election Commis­sion of Pakistan (ECP) will then announce the dates for the next gen­eral elections.

"Our government's tenure is going to end in August and I pray that the next elected govern­ment should give top priority to the educa­tion sector", he said this while addressing the launching ceremony of Pakistan Endowment Fund for Education and with incorporation of computer coding and constitutional studies in the national curricu­lum here yesterday. The remarks from the pre­mier come a day after his meeting with the chief of the ruling alliance Paki­stan Democratic Movement (PDM), Maulana Fazlur Reh­man, wherein the latter had stressed the need for dissolu­tion of assemblies and holding of general elections on time.

Explaining about the Paki­stan Endowment Fund for Ed­ucation, the PM said that fund­ing for this programme should be enhanced up to Rs140 bil­lion for next 10 years.

The PM expressed his wish to continue this project forev­er with increased funding to provide opportunities of high­er education to maximum de­serving students. 

He recalled that he, as Chief Minister Punjab, had launched the Punjab Education Endow­ment Fund (PEEF) in 2008 with an annual allocation of Rs 2 billion. The prime minis­ter said over 400,000 students benefited from this Fund who were now serving the country in different professions.

He said promotion of educa­tion was not aimed at politics but he considered it as wor­ship. 

He vowed to pay special fo­cus on the less developed ar­eas of the country where the young people could not com­plete their studies due to lack of resources. 

Earlier, Shehbaz Shar­if distributed the scholar­ships cheques under the new­ly launched project among the talented and deserving stu­dents. 

Earlier, in the day, the prime minister while addressing the foundation stone laying cere­mony of a flyover at Shaheen Chowk on Ninth Avenue here, claimed that not a single cor­ruption scandal has been re­ported during the current gov­ernment’s tenure of over one year, rather billions of rupees were saved by reaching big deals such as import of wheat and the agreement of a nuclear power project with China.

“The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, if given the mandate in next general elec­tions, would utilize all available resources to bring the country out of economic crisis and take it to the zenith of development and prosperity”, he announced. 

He said state of the art tech­nology would be introduced for development in various sec­tors, including agriculture, en­ergy and industries. 

He said the PTI’s Imran Ni­azi was bent upon ruining the economy as evident from his wilful deviation from the IMF agreement. He wanted the country to default, but with the blessings of Allah Almighty and efforts of the coalition govern­ment, such an eventuality was averted, the prime minister added. 

The prime minister asked Is­rael over its statement about internal mattes of Pakistan, saying that “It should look into its own actions”.

“Yesterday, you heard the statement of Israel. Israel has been shedding bloods of in­nocent Palestinians for the last many years. The innocent Muslims there have been suf­fering as many children have become orphans. That Isra­el is now speaking against the May 9 cases in Pakistan,” said the PM, asking Israeli authori­ties that what they would have done if the similar incidents had taken place there.

“I don’t want to give it any religious colour but you can see the connections of all this. Their religion also does not al­low them to shed blood of the innocent people,” said PM She­hbaz, questioning Israeli au­thorities as to why they felt pain over what happened on May 9.

The incidents of May 9, he said, were so dreadful that the nation could not forget. The PM said that the conspiracy was done to spread anarchy.

Later, addressing the Phar­ma Export Summit and Awards (PESA-2023) here, the PM stressed for the formulation of a balanced strategy that could lower the pricing formula of life-saving drugs and also en­sure growth of the country’s pharmaceutical industry.

He said the government was committed to protecting the poor on one hand besides help­ing the pharmaceutical sector to thrive.

The event, organized by Pa­kistan Pharmaceutical Manu­facturers’ Association (PPMA), gathered corporate heads of national and multinational pharmaceutical companies and pharma experts.

The prime minister said the country’s pharmaceutical in­dustry was playing an import­ant role in meeting the de­mands of medicine. 

He paid tributes to the compa­nies for propelling the export of medicines. Because of the steep rise in the cost of raw materials, he said, the prices of medicine witnessed an upsurge. 

He, however, stressed that the situation must not lead to conflict with the production of life-saving drugs.

PM Sharif constituted a com­mittee to resolve the issues and demands of the pharma indus­try within two weeks. 

He hoped that before the completion of the constitution­al term of incumbent govern­ment, the matters pertaining to the pharma industry would be resolved amicably.