LAHORE 07
Friday, 9 February, 2018
Timely payments being made aBD DeleGation meets shahBaz to review punjaB Development projects to sugarcane growers, PA told LAHORE
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STAFF REpORT
five-member delegation of Asian Development Bank (ADB) headed by Country Director for Pakistan Xiaohong Yang called on Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday. During the meeting, progress on different projects started in collaboration with the ADB was reviewed. The meeting agreed to further extend mutual cooperation in different sectors including public-private partnership based projects. Talking on the occasion, the CM Shehbaz said that a number of development projects are being completed in collaboration with the ADB in different sectors including irrigation and energy. Asian Development Bank is providing 500 million dollars in funding for irrigation and energy projects, he added. “ADB should provide development funds to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars every year for health, education and other sectors. Financial support of ADB
for development schemes aiming at public welfare during the next five years in Punjab will be appreciated by the government,” he said. He further said that Greater Thal Canal and Greater Cholistan Canal Projects will also be completed with ADB funding and added that water reserves will be developed in the outback of Cholistan to save canal and flood water. The vast expanse of Cholistan will be made green and cultivable through Water Resource Management Project. The Cholistan will be developed as a green basket not only for Punjab but for the whole of
Teachers vow to uphold PhD condition for VC appointments lahore: Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA) and elected members of other teachers’ bodies have announced that they would never compromise over the abolition of the condition of PhD for the appointment of vice-chancellors at public sector universities. In a joint press statement on Thursday, FAPUASA Punjab Chapter President Prof Dr Javed Ahmed, Central Vice President Dr Shoaib, University of engineering and Technology’s Teaching Staff Association President Dr Sohail Aftab, PU Academic Staff Association office bearers Dr Azhar Naeem, Syndicate members Prof Dr Sajid Rashid and Mahboob Hussain, Senate members Dr Zaid Mahmood, Dr Kamran Abid, Dr Abdul Qayyum Chaudhry and others said that they had conveyed serious reservations of academic fraternity in the meeting with Punjab Higher education Commission (HeC) Chairman Prof Dr Nizamuddin and Higher education Department Secretary Dr Nabeel Awan at Lahore Board. Inp
the country as well and contacts with Gulf States will be further improved by providing different facilities in Cholistan including an airport. ADB’s support for water treatment plant in Faisalabad is praiseworthy, he added. He also said that positive results have been gained in achieving the development targets through continued hard work. He added that Punjab is far ahead of other provinces due to its exemplary development in education, health, agriculture and other sectors. The credit for the introduction of cold chain project for the most transparent system of distribution of medicines also goes to Punjab government. He said that 50 more mobile health units will be introduced for providing best healthcare facilities to the people in far-flung areas. Meanwhile, best doctors from around the world will be invited to work in Multan Institute of Kidney Diseases (MIKD). He further said that helicopter service is also being introduced for transportation of specialist doctors in remote hinterlands. Punjab government is also giving Rs1000 stipend to female students to increase literacy rate among the womenfolk.
Nizam Sialvi bids farewell to politics lahore: Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi’s nephew MPA Nizamuddin Sialvi announced on Thursday that he was bidding farewell to politics. In a statement, he claimed that someone had provoked Pir Hameeduddin Sialvi’s supporters to stage a sit-in and had facilitated them. He further said that his uncle, the custodian of Sial Sharif’s shrine, would be the deciding authority on the future their clan’s politics. According to sources, the primary reason behind this decision was Nizamuddin’s personal differences with Pir Sialvi’s son Qasim Sialvi. earlier on Tuesday, he claimed that some powers were conspiring against the elected democratic government. Recently, in an interview, he claimed that he too was offered money for a similar sit-in because the rallies had proved to be unsuccessful in fulfilling the real goal of those powers. He further claimed that those powers were also using religion as a tool for their personal gains. STAFF REpORT
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Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan told the Punjab Assembly session on Thursday that farmers were being paid Rs180 per 40-kg sugarcane crop on time. On Thursday, the ninth sitting of the 34th session of the current assembly started an hour and 38 minutes behind its schedule with Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal in the chair. Only 11 lawmakers were present at the outset of the sitting. While answering queries by lawmakers during the Question-Hour, the minister said that general managers of the mills that did not follow the payment mode set by the government, had been arrested and sent behind the bars and he vowed to fully protect interests of the farmers. The lawmakers both from treasury and opposition benches took the floor for registering their protest over the delayed payments to sugarcane growers. Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami parliamentary leader Dr Wasim Akhtar staged a token walk-out for not addressing the grievances of sugarcane growers. Parliamentary Secretary Schools and education Department Roffian Julius told the house that the Punjab govern-
ment had handed over governmentowned schools to the private sector to improve their efficiency. "Now these privately-run schools are showing tremendous results," she added. The parliamentary secretary said that the provincial government had attached high significance to education and a number of steps had been taken to double the literacy rate by the year 2025. Responding to a question by a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) member Dr Noushin Ahmed, she said that huge budgetary allocations had been made for construction/rebuilding of schools and 36,000 new classrooms. She told a treasury member Tahir Mehmud that provision of new furniture was being ensured to almost all schools across Punjab. The House did not take up legislative business while annual activity reports of the Parks and Horticulture Authority for six divisions were not presented. Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) member Shehzad Munshi read his motion against the human rights secretary on which the chair sought the report. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Nabeela Hakim Ali pointed out the quorum following which the chair ordered the bells to be rung for five minutes.