Shahbaz approves centres for expats in four divisions

Orders constitution of cabinet committee on sports

LAHORE

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has approved the establishment of the facilitation centres for overseas Pakistanis in four divisional headquarters of the province where desks of police and other departments will be set up to solve the problems of overseas Pakistanis without any delay.

The facilitation centres will be set up in Dera Ghazi Khan, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Lahore divisions.

Chairing a meeting held to review performance of the Overseas Pakistanis Commission Punjab, the chief minister ordered immediate measures to establish the centres.

He said the Pakistani nationals who had settled abroad were the ambassadors of the country and the resolution of their problems was responsibility of the government. He said the Punjab government had established an independent commission to resolve problems of the overseas Pakistanis on priority basis. He said the commission was taking all possible measures to solve the problems of overseas Pakistanis.

He said one-window facility would be available at the facilitation centres. He said all pending cases of overseas Pakistanis should be solved at the earliest, and for this purpose, all the departments should coordinate closely. He said immediate steps should be taken to resolve problems of overseas Pakistanis at some of the housing societies.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed his displeasure over absence of some of officers of various departments concerning in the meetings of the district committees of the Overseas Pakistanis Commission (OPC) and said all the  officers concerned should attend the meetings. He said a mechanism should be evolved for the implementation of the decision of the district committees of the OPC. OPC Commissioner Afzaal Bhatti briefed the meeting on the performance of the commission.meeting.

Meanwhile, Shahbaz Sharif has ordered establishment of a cabinet committee on sports and approved funds amounting to Rs 100 million for the committee.

The cabinet committee will be authorised to take decisions for the promotion of sports and ensure their implementation. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also approved the recruitment of sports consultants and coaches at the district level and said all new recruitment should be made purely on merit. He ordered implementation of sports quota for admission to education institutions and said show-cause notices would be issued to educational institutions which would not act upon the sports quota.

Chairing a meeting of the general body of the Sports Board Punjab, the chief minister said the government was taking all possible steps for the promotion extracurricular activities in educational institutions.Shahbaz Sharif said talented sportspeople would be given financial support in the form of monthly stipends from the sports endowment fund and that the sports endowment fund had been increased to Rs1.3 billion with the increase of Rs1 billion. He said former sports stars of the country would also be given stipends from the endowment fund. He said survey should be conducted to establish sports academies in nine divisions and a report should be presented to him in this regard.

He said the establishment of the cabinet committee on sports would help encourage new talent and the committee would take decision on its own and would not be bound to send summary of its decision to the Office of the Chief Minister. He said a survey would be conducted across the province to review sports facilities and sports competitions would be organised at tehsil, district, division and provincial level under the Khadam-e-Punjab Talent Hunt Programme. He said the sports funds allocated to local governments should be spent transparently and the secretary local government would ensure it. He said facilities would be given to the chiefs of various sports committees.