FAISALABAD: State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali has said that the government is making all-out effort to solve problems of the people.

He was talking to University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice-Chancellor Dr Muhammad Iqbal Zafar at the latter’s chamber here. He said that the government was taking revolutionary steps to promote education and research culture.

He said that when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz came into power four years ago, the country was facing power outages of 18 hours. Now, we had ended the loadshedding from the country, he added.

The minister said that the PML-N government had added 8,500 megawatts to the national grid since it came to power in 2013. Another 4,000mw would be added to the system in a couple of months, he added. He urged the scientists to develop out-of-the-box solutions to redress the grievances of laymen. He said that agriculture was backbone of our economy, contributing to 20 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product.

He said that the government had brought the Kisan package to make development in the sector and to facilitate the farmers. He said that quality education and trained manpower were essential to compete with the world. He lauded the steps being taken on the part of the UAF in the fields of academia and research with special focus on the agriculture sector. Dr Muhammad Iqbal Zafar said that without ensuring the quality education, we could not cope with the challenges of modern era. He lauded the revolutionary steps of the government to promote education. He said that the knowledge-based economies were growing across the globe and we had to take measurers in this regard. He said that the UAF was taking all possible measures to produce quality manpower and research work. He said that the country was blessed with tremendous talent. He said that the Kisan package, Punjab Educational Endowment Fund, PM Fee imbursement scheme, HEC need-based scholarship, etc were the hallmark measures that would bring tangible results. MNA Mian Farooq was also present on the occasion.