- Shehbaz Sharif says all is well between civil, military leaderships
- Balochistan CM presents compensation cheques for Park bombing victims
Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan consists of four units, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan and “we have to identify and remove the misunderstanding and distances created in our hearts in the past”.
He expressed these views while addressing position holder girl and boy students of Balochistan Universities at the Chief Minister’s Office on Thursday. Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri, Commander Southern Command Lt Gen Aamir Riaz, provincial ministers, MNAs and MPAs, vice chancellors, columnists, intellectuals, educationists and senior officials were present on the occasion.
Sharif said “although political and military rulers and policy makers made serious mistakes during the last 69 years yet we have to learn a lesson from them and move forward”. He said that Pakistan could not progress without promotion of merit and education, adding that “if merit prevails in all the units of Pakistan, then no one can stop development of the country”.
The chief minister also gave laptops to the students from Balochistan.
Sharif said that “we have always been saying that political and military leadership is on one page and presence of Lt Gen Aamir Riaz in this hall reflects this today”. He said that unfortunately, the environment of misunderstanding and non-confidence remained present between Punjab and Balochistan in the past. “We have to forget these misunderstandings and move ahead with the force of unity,” he added.
Referring to the NFC Award, Sharif said that General Musharraf could not get this award during his ten years tenure but elected governments achieved this award and told the world that political leadership of Pakistan and people can achieve their objectives through love and sacrifice. He said that Punjab set an example of sacrifice by sacrificing its 11 billion rupees share for achieving NFC Award.
Sharif said that due to the Operation Zarb-e-Azb, terrorists had been defeated. He said that “our political and military leadership have jointly given a practical shape to historic agreement of CPEC and expressed the hope that time is not far off when the country will get rid of darkness”.
CM Sanaullah Zehri, while addressing the ceremony, said that Shehbaz Sharif was his role model and following him, 50 thousand laptops would be distributed on merit in Balochistan. He said that Punjab had set a high example of sacrifice in the approval of NFC Award.
Commander Southern Command Lt. Gen. Aamir Riaz said that they are thankful to Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab government who called the delegation of students of Balochistan here for encouragement. He said that future of Pakistan is associated with the youth and Pakistan will definitely get its goal.
DFID HEAD MEETS CM SHARIF:
Meanwhile, British Department for International Development (DFID) in Pakistan head Joanna Reid met CM Sharif here on Thursday. Reid appreciated the performance of Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif on progress in reforms programme for improvement in the education, health and skill development sectors in Punjab, and said that the steps taken by him were laudable.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that Pakistan and Britain were best partners of each other in the journey of development, adding that collaboration between the Punjab government and the DFID had increased and the cooperation of DFID in education, health and skill development sectors was appreciable.
Sharif told the DFID head that the system of development of education and health sectors and provision of best facilities to the masses would be further improved, and added that the Punjab government had decided to expand the scope of skill development programme to 36 districts.
