Moalims

LAHORE

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said more than 175,000 less-privileged but talented students from all over the country are being equipped with education through Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF), the biggest initiative in the history of Pakistan and South Asia.

The CM expressed these views while addressing PEEF ceremony at Awan-i-Iqbal on Wednesday. He said scholarships of Rs7.5 billion have so far been distributed on merit through the income of Rs 17.5 billion Educational Endowment Fund. Had such an educational fund been set up 70 years ago, no child would have remained deprived of education and billions of youth would have been playing their due role in national development, he regretted. He said PEEF has annulled the perception that higher and quality education is the right of elites by providing opportunities to deserving and brilliant students of not only Punjab but of Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Sindh, KP and Balochistan which is promoting national unity and solidarity as well.

He expressed his anguish over the heinous acts of previous leaderships who plundered national assets and resources mercilessly and left educational institutions, hospitals and other departments in vulnerable condition and this plague of their corruption has erupted into poverty and extremism.

Shahbaz Sharif said ill-fated woman of Kasur whose only crime was her poverty left this world at Jinnah Hospital, unattended from four hospitals however situation would have been quite different if she was related to any dignitary. He said: “We have lost our glory and countries as were far behind us have adopted our economic model and made progress.” He said odious joke
has been committed to the nation in the name of energy projects during the last 70 years. He said Neelam Jhelum Hydel Power Project has been ruined and the past rulers looted national wealth mercilessly.

PEFF Vice Chairman Dr Amjad Saqib while addressing the gathering said PEEF is providing scholarships to deserving children of the nation for education. Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Iqbal Khan, Ministers Syed Raza Ali Gillani, Rana Mashhood, vice chancellors, professors, PEEF scholars, educationists, columnists, teachers and parents attended the ceremony.

TRIBUTES TO CM: PEEF scholars getting higher education through Punjab Educational Endowment Fund termed CM’s educational scholarships programme revolutionary. They said PEEF has provided opportunities to the poor students to get higher education and materialise their dreams of progress and prosperity upon which they are thankful to the CM and support him. Dr Gulshan Rashid, first PEEF scholar from backward area tehsil Jampur, district Rajanpur of south Punjab said that her father is a TV mechanic and she has four sisters and brothers. Getting education by a girl in backward area like Jampur is not less than a revolution, she added. Abdul Rashid and Rubina Bibi, father and mother of Dr Gulshan, also expressed their views at the stage and said they are thankful to the CM. Muhammad Asif, the son of a driver who earned software engineering degree from LUMS, said he could never imagine that he will be able to get education from a prestigious institution like LUMS. PEEF scholar Waqas Haider, who is working as a chartered accountant in a renowned firm, said his father was employed in a textile factory who asked him not to get further education when he did not get good marks in Matric exams. He said his father died of heart attack and he decided to get education and his dream was materialized with the financial support of PEEF. Sidra Basit, daughter of Abdul Basit an electrician working in LDA said she has four siblings and live in a single-room house. She complete BBA and later MBA from Hailey College with support of PEEF scholarship and now she is working in a private sector firm, she added. She said that we are thankful to the CM. Abdul Basit said PEEF scholarship of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif should continue because it has helped talented students to get education in difficult circumstances. PEEF scholar Nabeel Anwar from Khanewal said that his father is a farmer who could not afford his educational expenses. He said he got PEEF scholarship on merit without any intercede and now able to continue my studies, and scholarship programme of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has changed our lives and we are standing with the Chief Minister for his revolutionary step of PEEF scholarship.

News Reference