Shahbaz, Murad discuss ways to promote harmony

Shahbaz says four federating units progress will result in prosperity

LAHORE

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said Pakistan’s four federating units’ progress and development will result in prosperity of the whole country and the consensus on the last NFC Award was a big achievement of political forces. He said it is time to promote national solidarity and harmony. 

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah called on Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, here Monday. Matters of mutual interest and promotion of inter-provincial harmony among provinces were discussed on the occasion.

Talking to Murad Ali Shah, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said there was a need for collective efforts for the progress and development of the country. He said the Punjab government had also included boy and girl students of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in its educational programmes and this step had promoted national harmony and brotherhood. He congratulated Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on taking over his new responsibilities and expressed good wishes for him. He also hosted a luncheon in the honour of Sindh chief minister.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa former governor  and senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan, Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, Provincial Minister for Schools Education Rana Mashhood, chief secretary besides special assistants to Chief Minister Sindh Syed Ghulam Shah Hussain and Dr Sikandar Shoro were also present on the occasion.

Japanese envoy: Shahbaz Sharif has said that promotion of economic and trade relations between the two countries is the need of the hour and exchange of delegations can help in strengthening economic and trade relations.

Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan Takashi Korai called on Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, here Monday. Matters of mutual interest, bilateral relations and promotion of cooperation in different sectors was discussed in the meeting. 

The chief minister expressed good wishes to the Japanese ambassador on assuming his diplomatic responsibilities in Pakistan and said that Pakistan and Japan had close relations and Japan was extending commendable cooperation to Pakistan in different sectors. He said Japan had made rapid progress in various sectors due to commitment and hard work and it was an example for Pakistan as well.

He said Pakistan could benefit from Japanese expertise in different sectors. He said Japan was extending commendable cooperation to the Punjab government in the improvement of education, health and urban facilities and Punjab also desired Japanese cooperation for the uplift of different sectors. He said there were vast opportunities of investment in education, health, energy and other sectors in the province; a favourable environment for investment had been created in Punjab and necessary facilities were being provided to the investors, he added. He said a highly transparent investment policy had been adopted in the province while a comprehensive strategy had been evolved for the quality and timely completion of development projects.

Japanese Ambassador Takashi Korai said Japan wanted to promote its relations with Pakistan and there was a need to transform the existing ties between the two countries into economic cooperation and Japan would take practical measures for this purpose.

development: Rapid progress and improved governance in Punjab owes to skillful use of modern technology. I suggest these innovative initiatives may reinforce our efforts to make Sindh as developed as Punjab is.

This was said by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah during his special visit to the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) on Monday. PITB Chairman Dr Umar Saif briefed him on the major initiatives taken to improve governance, transparency and monitoring in Punjab. Inspired by the work, Murad Ali Shah admired the determination of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Dr Umar Saif to introduce new dimensions of innovation and smart technology in government businesses.

He thanked the Punjab government on early and generous assistance to replicate IT projects in Sindh Police. He said “I am here to extend such collaboration in other fields in order to improve public service delivery in Sindh.”

Dr Umar Saif said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had advised to provide all assistance to Sindh free-of-cost. He said PITB’s fingers matching system had no parallel in Pakistan as it identifies the criminals involved in large number of crimes committed at different places with different names. He said “PITB had many success stories pertaining to our work for revolutionising health, education, police, revenue, law & order, Rescue services and other sectors of Punjab that have received applause from the World Bank President, the head of Department for International Development (DFID) UK, the US Ambassador and many more.

The PITB is working on more than 236 projects aiming at improvement of governance, transparency and efficiency”. 

Dr Saif said that PITB had rendered remarkable services to eradicate ‘Thana and Patwari’ culture from Punjab with computerisation of police stations and land record across the province. “We are assisting even federal government as the Haj Management Information System of PITB has been facilitating pilgrims through online registration, balloting and helplines set in Pakistan as well as in Saudi Arabia for last three years. PITB has set up state-of-the-art one window operation in Rawalpindi, Lahore and Sargodha in the name of ‘e-Khidmat Markaz’ where almost 17 public services i.e. issuance of domicile, marriage, death and character certificate, driving licence, NIC and route permit etc. are being delivered without hurdles and bribes. PITB is also working effectively to curb crime and terrorism in Punjab by rolling out 1,000 bio-metric machines through the Punjab Police, Rangers, Anti-Terrorism Force and Special Branch. 

Our e-Stamping system has earned Rs1.3 billion from 14 districts within just three months besides saving the public and government from frauds, corruption and fake stamp papers. Punjab is the first in Pakistan with making a huge data of monitoring of 53,000 public schools open” he added. Dr Saif presented beautiful souvenir of Arfa Tower to the distinguished guest.