Chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme Maryam Nawaz on Monday said the government intended to provide laptops to 100,000 students of the country, including 34,000 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, during the current month.
Addressing a ceremony at the Governor House here, she said education was top priority of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, as he had initiated ‘Fee Reimbursement Scheme’ for deserving students of less developed areas to help them to continue their higher studies.
Ms Nawaz said under the scheme up to Rs40,000 would be paid to the poor students, covering their admission and library charges. She said that she would add boarding and lodging charges of Fata students in the scheme.
Ms Nawaz said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N respected the trust of the people which they bestowed on the party in the last general elections. The party is working to put the country on the path of prosperity and development, she maintained.
The PML-N lawmaker deplored that protests by certain political parties were aimed at stopping development of the country. She claimed that present government’s policies had resulted in halt to drone attacks inside Pakistan, a considerable decrease in incidents of terrorism and initiation of development projects in the country.
Ms Nawaz said that she had not come to KP to criticise the provincial government rather she had come to deliver to youth of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa what they deserved. She said that she wanted to see that Peshawar also have a metro project like Lahore and Islamabad. The Youth Programme’s chairperson paid salute to male and female students of Fata and KP for continuing their higher studies despite facing law and order situation and terrorism threats.
She said she had accepted the responsibility of the Youth Programme as a chairperson for the brighter future of youth, especially of backward areas. “I have no desire to get a ministry or lucrative post; rather I have assumed the responsibility of Youth Programme as a chairperson so that I could work for the brighter future of youth.”
Maryam Nawaz expressed gratitude to students and people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for giving her warm welcome and said she came to the province after 16 years and was impressed with the hospitality of KP people.
Earlier, Higher Education Commission chairman Professor Mukhtiar Ahmed said that 34,000 students of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be benefited from the Fee Reimbursement Scheme. He said that as many as 7,225 students of seven Fata agencies and 10 districts of KP would get their fee reimbursed this year under the initiative.
Overall, he said Rs1.2 billion would be distributed among students across the country under the scheme in June.
Source: Dawn.
