UKaid provincial representative Alastair King Smith, in a meeting organized by PML-N senior leader Muhamamd Mehdi at a local hotel on Sunday, announced that UKaid would launch an education development plan next month in a bid to bring 67 million children to school. He maintained that Pakistan-UK relations were strengthening. “We have committed to working for vocational education to prepare a trained and skilful workforce to boost the economy,” he added. Funds would be made available for private organizations to further the cause of better education, he said. He said that recent top-level engagements and communications between the UK government and the Pakistan government unleashed a new chapter of mutual respect and bilateral trade. He said that under the bilateral development programme to help Pakistan thrive, education was on top priority.
“The bilateral development programme features education, especially on primary level, economic growth and improvement of governance by democratizing institutions,” he added. The programme, he said, would be materialized in collaboration with the government taking on board all stakeholders to yield the best results and benefits. On a question that CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif denied receiving any grant, he clarified that the foreign grants were provided on submission of a formal request, meeting all requirements, and if a request was not made, financial assistance in form of grants was not provided. Basically, he said, grants intended to help the country gain self-reliance and if it was achieved and a country did not need grants more, it showed good signs.
On the occasion, PML-N leader Muhammad Mehdi said that Pakistan-UK relationship was exemplary and hoped that both would further cement them to benefit each other. He said that lop-sided foreign policy was the mother of all ills and unless it was revisited, Pakistan would continue to reel with political and economic turmoil, terrorism and damages to sovereignty. He underlined the need for the UK’s role in resolving the Kashmir issue to establish greater peace and stability in the region.
