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Govt has taken effective measures to develop high-quality human resource, CM says
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Says correct use of resources needs to be ensured for positive results
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that economic targets could not be achieved without developing the human resource first because high-quality human resources played a pivotal role in the overall socio-economic development.
Addressing the inaugural session of the two-day long Punjab Human Development Forum 2018 held under the aegis of the planning and development (P&D) department, he said it was why the Punjab government was giving particular importance to the best development of human resources. Practical steps were taken by the government to develop a skilled workforce according to the industrial needs, he added.
The chief minister expressed hope that the human development forum in the provincial metropolis would be helpful in meeting the targets of developing quality human resources. The practical recommendations finalised through this forum would be helpful in developing a composite strategy. He reiterated that the provision of quality facilities to every citizen of the province was the mission of the government and it was assuring that no one would sit idle till the fulfilment of the mission.
In his keynote address, the chief minister said that attending the forum was a matter of pride for him as the platform would prove feasible with regard to the development of human resources. The provision of clean drinking water to the citizens was a gigantic task, he said while adding that the government was fully committed to providing clean drinking water to every citizen.
“For this purpose, we have launched a mega programme, however, we have faced certain difficulties and setbacks. Due to the lack of competent human resource and other professionals, along with many other reasons, we have not succeeded much in this regard,” said Shehbaz.
He maintained that capacity issues existed not only in Punjab, but the whole country as well and without solving them success could not be achieved. Quality human resources were a prerequisite for materialising the projects of public importance, he said. We have to move further by accepting our faults and mistakes because positive results were achieved by learning from the mistakes, added the chief minister.
“Unluckily, the past governments continued to sing the mantra of ‘all is good’ for 70 years and facts were ignored. It was claimed as if rivers of milk and honey were flowing here,” he said.
The chief minister also said that Musharraf had deceived the nation by laying the foundation of the Basha Dam project as no spadework was ever done. There was no design, nor any land was procured and even the approval was not accorded. Along with it, he said, the resources were also not allocated for the project. The past governments tremendously damaged the confidence of the nation with their false claims. Shehbaz said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government made sincere efforts to rid the country of various problems and the efforts proved fruitful.
“We have completed energy projects of 5000 megawatts capacity from our own resources in a record period of time. Due to the completion of these projects, load-shedding has been overcome. We have not established these projects by getting loans from the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank, but the projects have been set up with the hard earned money of the people of the country, he said.
The speed and transparency with which energy projects were completed had no match and no one in the world had ever completed energy projects at such a pace. He also said that once terrorism and fanaticism were the biggest of all problems in the country, but Pakistan Army, the police and other law enforcement agencies worked hard, rendered invaluable sacrifices and restored peace in the country.
Shehbaz said that the time was not far when the country would be purged of the menace of terrorism and fanaticism. Another example of national commitment and collective efforts was the nuclear programme of the country, he said while adding that the country had not become a nuclear power for any aggressive designs, but for the purpose of national defence.
The chief minister observed that development of high-quality human resource was the need of the hour keeping in view the fourth industrial revolution. He said that the Punjab government had taken effective measures to deal with the challenge.
The government, he said, was striving to overcome the deficiency of nutrition in children and a large chunk of population consisted of the youth, to empower whom, different programmes were underway. PEEF was another beneficial program which had helped thousands of deprived students to study without being burdened, he added.
The chief minister also said that all the federating units were being included in the beneficial program and a culture of supremacy, merit and transparency were being promoted in the province. More than 200,000 teachers were employed on merit. However, master trainers were also required to provide quality training to the teachers.
He said that there was no dearth of resources as the Punjab government provided billions of rupees for the health and education sectors. The correct use of resources should also be ensured to achieve positive results from these efforts. In this regard, concerned ministers and their secretaries should move forward to take a lead.
The Punjab government spent every penny of its resources on the welfare of the masses in a very transparent manner. High-quality medicines were being provided in public sector hospitals and their samples were also sent to internationally recognised laboratories for analysis.
Meanwhile, the latest system of drug testing labs was also introduced in addition to the modernisation of the existing labs. He said that mobile health units were providing healthcare facilities to the people of the remote areas at their doorsteps and another 54 mobile health units were being sent to different far-flung areas.
The chief minister said steps were taken to improve the standards of healthcare services, and a public-private partnership based system was introduced in this regard. He said that PKLI was established by the Punjab government in Lahore and an amount of Rs20 billion was being spent on it.
These were the revolutionary changes that the Punjab government introduced in the health and education sectors, said Shehbaz.
The only way to stop the bloody revolution in the country and turn it into a soft revolution was by ensuring the judicious division of resources and bridging the gaps between the poor and the rich, said the chief minister. “We have to learn from our mistakes and the performance has to be improved further,” he said.
The purpose of Pakistan’s creation was to enforce an equal system, and for that purpose, our forefathers laid down their lives, Shehbaz said while adding that we should generate our resources for welfare projects and move towards the destination of self-reliance with the power of unity.
