Students for balanced and quality education

LAHORE
THE government should take practical steps in the coming budget to resolve energy crisis, provide employment opportunities to youths and ensure balanced and quality education in all the urban and rural areas of Pakistan.
These views were expressed by the students of different educational institutions in Jang Economic Session on ‘students’ suggestion on forthcoming budget’, here Tuesday. The participants were Sadaf Touqer, Fizan Siddique, Maha Bokhari, and Farhan Javeed while hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.
Sadaf Touqer said energy crisis was the mother of all problems in Pakistan which increased inflation and halted industrialisation. She suggested major focus on resolving the energy crisis in the budget, infrastructure development of rural areas and subsidising health and education sectors. She believed that rural economy could grow by incentivising agriculture. She urged utilisation of youth for productivity enhancement. She said equal education system both in public and private institutions could save the future of the country.
Fizan Siddique said reducing dependence on foreign debt was crucial for economic development of Pakistan. He said rupee devalued due to foreign debts and stressed the need of reducing the non-development expenditures. He said unemployment was increasing terrorism and maximum employment opportunities should be created to control it. He called for ending injustice, indirect taxation system as justice taxation could reduce poverty and increase employment. He suggested special incentive packages for rural development, strengthening the financial institutions and resolving the agriculture sector issues.
Maha Bokhari said that balanced budget by setting priorities to reduce pressure from economy was important. She said census was important for prioritising different sectors and public needs. She suggested reduction in non-development expenditures and spending these resources on human resource development. She called for direct taxes and strict implementation of it. She said industrialisation would reduce imports, create employments and save foreign exchange reserves. She called for increasing sports budget allocation to produce international level standards players to compete in the world.
Farhan Javeed believed that forthcoming budget would be a deficit one likewise past while stressed the need of human resource development. He called for discouraging metro bus and Murree Train projects and providing equal opportunities at both urban and rural levels. He said privatisation of Railways was the only solution to improve it which would reduce pressure on road infrastructure. He stressed the equal taxation system, reducing indirect taxes and improving effectiveness of tax collecting institutions. He said dams construction was crucial to resolve energy crisis which should be prioritised in the budget.