LAHORE  - The workers and office- bearers of the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust, the Pakistan Movement Workers Trust, the Bazm-i-Iqbal, the Tehreek-i-Takmeel-i-Pakistan and the All-Pakistan Workers’ Confederation paid a visit to the Iqbal’s mausoleum under the leadership of the NPT Chairman Rafique Tarar with the Pakistan Movement workers.
They laid a wreath and prayed for the elevation of the soul of the poet-philosopher. The Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust Vice Chairman Prof Dr Rafique Ahmad, labour leader Khursheed Ahmad, Muhamamd Asif Bhalli, Maulana Muhammad Shafi Josh, Begum Safiq Ishaq, Mirza Ahmad Hassan, Maj (r) Siddique Rehan, Riaz Choudhry, Muhammad Khawar Sethi, Ch. Ghulam Sarwar, Dr. Yaqoob Zia, Nawab Barkaat Mehmood, Riaz Ahmad Choudhry, Sh. Sana Ullah, the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Trust Secretary Shahid Rasheed, students from the Moon Public School and a large number of people from different walks of life were there to pay their respects.
Col Bilal Ahmad Waraich from the Rangers accorded a warm welcome to Muhammad Rafique Tarar and a smart contingent from the Pak Rangers presented a guard of honour. Rafique Tarar observed that Allama Iqbal gave the message of solidarity and mutual love to the entire Ummah generally, and the Muslims of the sub-continent particularly. He determined the goal for them in his 1930 Allahabad address. It was Allama Iqbal who persuaded the Quaid-i-Azam to return to India and lead the Muslims to their destination. His vision was given the concrete shape in the form of Pakistan by the Quaid-i-Azam.
Tarar further observed that the Pak Rangers had made the ceremony really memorable. They deserve rich tributes for their immortal services to their country by “cleansing” Karachi of evil elements and restoring law and order there.
Prof Dr Rafique Ahmad exhorted the authorities to give precedence to education to everything else and awaken the passion of Pakistaniyyat in them.
Maulana Shafi Josh led a session of prayers for the soul of Allama Muhammad Iqbal and for the progress and development of Pakistan. Al-Haj Akhtar Hussain Qureshi recited the Allama Muhammad Iqbal poetry rhythmically.
Seminar: Punjab Secretary Planning & Development Iftikhar Ali Sahoo has said that over the years the Punjab government has tried to bring in the competency and technical expertise of private consultants.
He expressed his views while addressing the seminar titled “Pre-qualification for consulting firms under the concept of capacity building of government departments”, organized by DG, M&E, P&D held in the Auditorium of P&D Complex at Lahore yesterday.
“Now the government is moving towards engaging academia, civil society organizations, companies, businesses, firms and consultants and this initiative as per the vision of CM Punjab intends to improve the quality of services provided by the government through modern techniques and models implied by national and international consultants,” the secy added.
Secretary P&D Iftikhar Sahoo said that Government department’s capacity to conceive high quality projects needs to be upgraded for which the demand of consultants is undeniable. He added that Punjab Government mandate was much beyond the pre-qualification and it was to develop consultancy sector and this exercise held today was part of that drive as per the Chief Minister’s vision.
Punjab Government was going to initiate Mega Projects in the Province during the fiscal year 2016-17 by involving and ensuring partnership of international & national consultancy firms and companies.
Director General (M&E), P&D welcomed all the representatives of Consulting Firms to attend the Pre-qualification Seminar that will help in understanding amendment in PPRA Rules 2014 and subsequent pre-qualification for the financial year 2016-17 by P&D Department with 09th May 2016 as closing date for applying. He through brief presentation iterated that contractors and consultants were development partners while P&DD approved development projects of Rs. 400 billion plus for the current currency year.
He said that consultants were important than contractors as the former designs projects on which Government allocated public funds and the projects must be rationally designed to get best returns out of the public spending. He added that because of resource constraints the GoPb was moving towards Private Public Partnership (PPP) mode to address acute public issues without worrying much about monetary obligations.
Addressing the seminar, Dr Shabana Haider Member Health, P&D Board said that instead of adopting stereotype skills and techniques, the consultants might also uplift their quality on grounds of current scientific practices. Representatives of more than 20 reputed national and international firms participated in the seminar.