LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday said that an efficient system of accountability (Ehtesab) was essential for the progress of the country, and the prime minister, chief ministers, federal ministers, governors, judges, generals and bureaucrats should go through this process. Speaking at a joint ceremony on the launch of the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) and the concluding session of the media course on “Decentralised Development Governance” organised by the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) at the Arfa Software Technology Park, the Punjab chief minister came down hard on public varsities for opening sub-campuses under public-private partnership while compromising the quality of education. Expressing concern over public universities working in isolation, he stressed the need of linking faculties at varsities with industries and focusing research and development (R&D) in order to play an active role in the progress and development of the country. CPNE President MujiburRehman Shami, Secretary General Dr Jabbar Khattak, Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, PHEC Chairperson Dr Mohammad Nizamuddin, Secretary Higher Education Department Punjab Irum Bukhari, vice-chancellors, including Dr Umar Saif, Dr Mujahid Kamran, Prof Dr M Khaleeq-ur-Rahman, Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhry, senior journalists, editors and other government officials were present on the occasion. Shahbaz Sharif made it clear that the provincial HEC was in no way aimed at overlapping the core functions of the federal HEC, adding that rather the former would supplement the latter to achieve excellence in higher education. He said the universities and research institutes should develop linkages for the betterment of agriculture, livestock, commerce and industry and other departments. Talking about the recent initiative “Parho Punjab, Barho Punjab”, he said the government had aimed at achieving 100 percent enrolment at primary level by 2018. He said it was for the first time in the history of Aitchison College that admissions were made purely on merit in the past couple of years. He said he did not want to mention but even children of his late brother were denied admissions to the Aitchison College. He said for the first time the Punjab government had established an IT University which was equipping youth with the latest technology and lauded the efforts of its VC Dr Umar Saif in this regard. Earlier, the chief minister talked at length about the role of the media and said its role in shaping society and strengthening its values was undeniable. He said the freedom media enjoyed today was self-achieved through sacrifices and commitment, adding this freedom should be used for progress and development of the country. He said sometimes even reports of secret agencies were not as much reliable and fact-based as those of the media. He said that the media freedom was an asset. He said powers without accountability led to loot and plunder as witnessed in the past. He said the media should highlight debt writing-off by banks as billions of taxpayers money was looted in Pakistan in the recent past. Had Rs250 to Rs300 billion not written-off, not only 3,000 megawatts of electricity could have been produced but also many high standard education institutes could have been established with this amount. He said justice was being sold at police stations and Katcheries, which had weakened the foundations of the country. He said the Punjab government would root out this culture. The chief minister said it was not the government’s job to establish industries but to provide a conducive environment for investment by private sector. He said the government invited local investors to invest in energy sector but they did not show interest owing to which the government completed the 100 megawatts Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park, Bahawalpur, through its own resources and that too in a record period of time. He said that though Pakistani investors did not come forward but China helped Pakistan and signed agreements of investment of $46 billion at this difficult time. He said that China through this package had given a strong reply to those who said that there was nothing but terrorism in Pakistan. He said national banks should come forward to provide resources for projects aimed at providing facilities and services to the general public. Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Dr Nizamuddin said besides many other planned initiatives for improving higher education, the PHEC would establish a training academy for teachers as this was a missing component at higher education level. He also said skill development of youth would be another priority area of the provincial HEC. Senior journalist Mujibur Rehman Shami said the provinces were still unaware of the powers they got through the 18th Amendment. He lauded the efforts of CM Shahbaz Sharif in the promotion of education and other social sectors. The chief minister congratulated the CPNE and UNDP on holding the training workshop. He said that refresher courses were very important in all sectors of life and the CPNE had taken a commendable step by arranging the training workshop. He also announced a grant of Rs250 million for the CPNE.
