LAHORE CHIEF Minister Shahbaz Sharif formally launched the new phase of Schools Reforms Roadmap ‘Parho Punjab—Barho Punjab’ here Monday, under which the target has been set to enrol every child of the province by 2018. On this occasion, the CM announced to adopt a school in the rural area of Lahore and said he would not only supervise the affairs of the school but would also visit the school from time to time. He said provincial ministers, chief secretary, administrative secretaries, heads of different departments, Commissioners, RPOs, DCOs and DPOs of the province each would also adopt a school. The chief minister formally inaugurated enrolment campaign for the year 2015-16 by signing admission forms of two children and giving them textbooks, bags and stationery at the event held at Aiwan-e-Iqbal. He said 30 March was important with regard to bringing a revolution in education sector as on this day a commitment would have to be made that no effort would be spared for achieving education target for the year 2018 with hard work, honesty and dedication. He said the Punjab government had invested billions of rupees in education sector during the last about seven years; however, much was still to be done for uplifting education sector. He said it was a grave injustice that while the children of the elites benefited from the best educational facilities, but provision of quality academic facilities to the poor was considered a waste of resources. He said 20 years ago, Pakistan was compared with India but now it was lagging far behind India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other countries and facing serious issues like terrorism, extremism and shortage of electricity. He said no effort would be spared to resolve these issues. He said additional subjects based on tolerance, love and brotherhood were being included in the syllabus of schools and seminaries which would help curb extremism. tax reforms: Shahbaz Sharif presided over a meeting here on Monday which considered various proposals regarding tax reforms roadmap. He approved tax reforms roadmap on the pattern of reforms roadmap in Education and Health Sectors. Addressing the meeting, the chief minister said that increase in resources for the projects of public welfare was the need of the hour and this objective could be achieved through introducing reforms in tax system. He said that administrative reforms were essential in the tax system and attention should be paid to re-designing of tax recovery system. Salman Ahmed of international consultancy firm Mckinsey gave a briefing on the proposed tax reforms roadmap. Adviser Dr Ijaz Nabi, MPA Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha, chief secretary, senior Member Board of Revenue, Chairman Planning and Development, secretary finance, secretary excise, chairman Punjab Revenue Authority, and the officials concerned were present.
