All institutions, provinces on board to rehabilitate flood victims: governor

LAHORE:British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Christian Turner, called on Governor Balighur Rehman at Governor’s House here on Thursday.

In the meeting, issues of mutual interest including flood situation, environment, promotion of bilateral trade were discussed. The British High Commissioner Christian Turner expressed his grief over the loss of lives and property due to floods in different areas of Pakistan. The governor thanked the British High Commissioner for expressing solidarity with the flood victims. Speaking on this occasion, he said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken all the institutions and provinces onboard to help and rehabilitate the flood victims, adding that he is also visiting the flood affected areas and allocated a huge amount of money for the rehabilitation of the flood victims. The governor welcomed the announcement of incentives for Pakistani exports in the UK's Developing Countries Trade Scheme (DCTS) and hoped that the free trade agreement between the two countries would start soon. On this occasion, British High Commissioner Christian Turner said that climate change is affecting the whole world, including the UK. He said that working on environment and climate change is the need of the hour. He appreciated the initiative of forming a consortium on environment in the universities of Punjab. Meanwhile, the governor said in his message on World Literacy Day that the state has a constitutional and moral responsibility to provide free and quality education to every child. He said only by equipping the country with education, the country can develop in the true sense. He said that teachers should focus on the moral training and character building of children in schools.

The governor said that the number of out-of-school children had decreased significantly between 2013 and 2018, which unfortunately has increased again. He said that it is necessary to take continuous measures in the same way and the government should provide resources for education and ensure children access to school and improve the quality of education. Moreover, Fauzia Younis, Director Communication British High Commission, held a meeting with journalists and told the media persons about the measures taken by the British government for the relief and rehabilitation of flood affectees. She disclosed that an amount of 1.6m pounds had been donated by the British government for the flood affectees. She also stated that the tour of the England cricket team to Pakistan was a welcome sign. She also hailed Pakistan's women cricket team and expressed the wish of English women cricket team's visit to Pakistan. She also stated that British sees great potential in Pakistan and told that student visas had been given to thousands of Pakistani students till mid of 2022.