Rs5.2m scholarships distributed among minority students

Lahore

Provincial Minister for Minorities and Human Rights Khalil Tahir Sandhu has said that the nation will defeat the enemy of peace and country with the power of education.

"Despite the sacrifices of thousands of citizens of Pakistan along with police and security officials, our spirits as one nation are high to eliminate terrorists who want to demoralise us with their cowardly activities of bomb blasts," the minister said.

As a special initiative of Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, the educational scholarship cheques amounting to Rs 5.2 million were distributed among 179 talented students belonging to the minority community of Lahore division by Punjab Minister Khalil Tahir Sindhu, MPAs Tariq Masih Gill, Shahzad Munshi and Kanji Ram during a ceremony held at Town Hall on Thursday.

Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Secretary Asim Iqbal, Deputy Secretary Hammad ul Hassan, representatives of district administration and minority community along with parents of the students were also present.

Khalil Tahir Sindhu congratulated the recipients of the scholarships and said that the chief minister had allocated Rs 30 million for providing educational scholarships to the talented students of minorities during the current year while the scholarships of same amount were distributed among the minority students during the last year.

He said 658 students from minorities were being distributed educational scholarships of the session 2015-16 throughout the province. He said the chief minister had always encouraged the talented and able students without any discrimination by providing them with handsome scholarships, laptops, IT education, skills training and other facilities on merit which would help bring about educational revolution for the rapid development of the country.

Sandhu said the Punjab government had announced even more scholarships for the minority students and the talented students could apply for the scholarships by February 28.

The minister said that the policy of five percent quota of minorities in government jobs had been implemented in letter and spirits. He said the employees from minorities were serving in police, judiciary, civil services and other departments on key posts through the policy.  Parliamentary Secretary for Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Tariq Gill, MPAs Shahzad Munshi and Kanji Ram said that the minority citizens were also serving equally as Pakistani and the present government was protecting their rights for bringing them in the mainstream of national development. 

oath: Pakistan Railways Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Muhammad Javed Anwar took oath as Chief Scout of Pakistan Railway Boy Scouts Association at a ceremony held at Railway Mayo Garden Club on Thursday.

Paksitan Boy Scouts Association Chief Commissioner and Balochistan Provincial Assembly  Speaker Raheela Durrani presided over the ceremony. The CEO emphasised the need and importance of scouting. High-ranking officers and scouts from across the country were also present.

'PINS: As directed by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the project of Punjab Institute of Neuro-Sciences would be completed during the current fiscal year.

Punjab Specialised Health and Medical Education Department has allocated Rs 1000.067 million for fiscal year 2016-17 and no lethargy or negligence in connection with completion of the scheme would be tolerated, stated Post Graduate Medical Institute and Lahore General Hospital Principal Prof Ghiyas un Nabi Tayyab during a meeting held in connection with review of development works at Lahore General Hospital (LGH), according to a handout issued here on Thursday.  He said that all the neuro-related wards had been shifted to the newly constructed Punjab Institute of Neuro-Sciences (PINS). He said the PINS would be the best institute of neuro complications in the region.