Country will be free of loadshedding within 12 months: Dar

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar said on Thursday that Pakistan would be free of loadshedding within 12 months.

“Financial discipline and macroeconomic stability have been restored and within 12 months’ period Pakistan will be free of loadshedding. Irrespective of petty politics, let’s join hands for bringing betterment in the country,” Ishaq Dar said while speaking at the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Universal Service Fund (USF) and CADD for establishing IT labs at 107 schools for rural female students in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) here at the Ministry of Information Technology.

Minister of State for IT and Telecom Anusha Rehman and Minister of State for CADD Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry were present on the occasion. Ishaq Dar said that Pakistan would be heading towards progress and prosperity as there were projections done by international institutions that Pakistan would be joining comity of G-20 in the years to come as its existing position stood at 44th in the ranking of the world’s economy.

“Pakistan’s economy can be ahead of Canada, Korea and Italy,” the minister said while referring to these projections and said that they had achieved turnaround of the economy within three and a half years period as when they came to power there were predictions of default and economic collapse of the country. According to announcement of the Finance Ministry, the signing ceremony was held at Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom (MoITT) where two MoUs were signed.

The first MoU was signed between USF/MoITT and the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), for establishment of computer labs in girls’ schools in rural Islamabad. Another MoU was signed between the USF and Microsoft for the training of over 90 teachers by Microsoft for these computer labs. USF will appoint the teachers for these labs. CEO of USF Haris M Chaudhry and General Manager Microsoft Leila Serhan signed the MoU.

The USF board of directors chaired by the minister of state for IT and Telecom approved this special project for girls in collaboration with FDE and Microsoft. Under this project, state-of-the-art ICT facilities and trained human resources will be provided to the selected girls’ schools at primary, middle and secondary level in rural areas of ICT, in addition to operational and maintenance support for three years to these schools. This special project aims to benefit the girls at these schools by fostering digital coding skills and building early stage aptitude for ICT related careers. The project is expected to empower these girls by equipping them with modern IT knowledge and opening the doors of the IT sector to them. This will facilitate these young women in becoming entrepreneurs, contributors to the knowledge-based economy and the future builders of the nation.

Ishaq Dar stated that the government has made significant progress on the 4 E’s which were part of PML-N’s manifesto for the 2013 general elections, i.e. energy, economy, elimination of extremism, and education/social sector. He highlighted that a reputable major international financial institution has predicted Pakistan to become the 20th largest global economy by 2030. 

Anusha Rahman appreciated the cooperation of FDE, Microsoft and USF for fully supporting this initiative. She said that the project will improve the lives of many young girls by equipping them with IT skills.

Dr Tariq Fazal thanked all the stakeholders for their commitment to this project and said that the project will help in bridging the IT and education gap between the urban and rural areas of Pakistan.