ISLAMABAD   -    Prime Minister Sheh­baz Sharif has said that the country's progress was linked to the suc­cess of the Youth Loan Program which besides supporting the unem­ployed youngsters also benefitted the national economy.

He said this while ad­dressing a ceremony for cheques distribu­tion among the bene­ficiaries of the Prime Minister Youth Loan Program here.

He said the loan scheme was the contin­uation of the PM Youth Loan scheme launched in 2013 by then prime minister Nawaz Shar­if and billions of rupees were disbursed among the entitled youth.

The prime minister recalled that CM Youth Loan Scheme was also launched in Pun­jab and 75,000 youths were also given vehicles on loan.

He said the recovery ratio of the youth loan scheme was around 99 percent which manifested the honesty of the country’s youngsters.

Prime Minister Shehbaz said that the 99% recovery ratio of the youth and Kis­san loan schemes falsified the miscon­ception about the risks involved in the individual loans by the banks.

He said Pakistani youths never got their loans waived off – a problem that inflicted huge losses to the nation­al economy. The prime minister con­gratulated the beneficiaries of the loan scheme and appreciated the services of SAMP Shiza Fatima Khawaja, banks and other partners for their efforts to make this program a success. He said consid­ering their immense potential, the gov­ernment would never disappoint the youth and would scrape the maximum resources to extend them loan facilities.

The prime minister also announced that the federal government would dis­tribute 100,000 laptops among top achiever youths across the country, purely on merit.

He said those who used to criticize the laptop scheme in the past should have witnessed that the very laptops helped the youth to earn sustenance, particular­ly during the COVID pandemic.

“I am giving laptop, not Kalashnikov,” the prime minister remarked who earli­er distributed cheques among the bene­ficiaries of loan scheme besides launch­ing a Freelancer Card.

Earlier, SAPM on Youth Affairs Shi­za Fatima Khawaja apprised the audi­ence of the performance of Youth Loan Program and assured that a target of Rs30 billion loan to the youth would be achieved. She also thanked the relevant ministries, banks, microfinance organi­sations, business and social media part­ners for their services and contribution to the success of the program.

She said the agriculture and SME sec­tor would be among major beneficiaries of the loan program.

Punjab Bank President Zafar Masood highlighting the features of the freelanc­er card, said the freelancers could bring in revenue worth billions of rupees if card was issued and account access was made easy.

He recalled that in the past, the re­covery ratio Rozgar scheme was 99% while the recovery rate of Kissan scheme was 99.6% which removed the miscon­ceptions about the government loan schemes. Earlier, a documentary was played marking the testimonials from the beneficiaries of the youth loan scheme which enabled them to earn sustenance for their respective families. Meanwhile, the prime minister while chairing a meeting to review the implementation of the austerity policy here said that this policy would be enforced strictly and no laxity in this regard would be tolerat­ed. He said that the “historic” decisions made to promote austerity and simplici­ty would have a far-reaching impact that also got applause from the public.

He directed the formation of a moni­toring committee to oversee the imple­mentation of the decisions.

To be chaired by a cabinet member from a coalition party, the monitoring committee would comprise representa­tives from all the allied parties.

Other committee members would in­clude Special Assistant to PM Jahanzeb Khan, Principal Secretary to PM and fed­eral finance secretary.

The prime minister said the austeri­ty measures would help save national resources; however, effective outcomes depended on the full enforcement of the policy. Federal ministers Rana Tanveer Hussain and Tariq Bashir Cheema, Advi­sor Qamar Zaman Kaira, State Minister Hashim Notezai, SAPM Jahanzeb Khan and relevant senior officers attended the meeting. Earlier, during a meeting with a six-member US Senate delegation from the Democratic Party, led by Senate Ma­jority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer, the prime minister urged the US Con­gress to play its due role in raising its voice for the rights of the Kashmiri peo­ple and against the rising wave of an­ti-Muslim extremism in India.

Other members of the delegation in­cluded Senators Maria Cantwell, Amy Klobuchar, Gary Peters, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Peter Welch.