PM Shehbaz says willing to talk with PTI for ‘sake of national interest’

Islamabad: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said he was ready to talk with arch rival PTI for the sake of national interest.

"I am ready to give any sacrifice for keeping the national interest as the primary concern," he said while addressing the launch ceremony of “Youth Development Initiatives” in Islamabad.

 The premier said: “You didn’t shake [my] hand for four years and now you’re saying to ‘come to talk with us’? Till when will this two-facedness continue? But, we will be ready for it for the sake of national interest.”

Addressing the gathering, PM Shehbaz announced internships for engineers, scholarships for top universities

As part of the “Youth Development Initiatives”, the prime minister said the government would provide 20,000 internships to young engineers and 75 scholarships to students for top universities.

He said the Ministry of Planning and Development would carry out the youth initiatives, including spending Rs40 billion in 20 of the most underdeveloped districts and building 250 mini sports complexes.

PM Shehbaz said the programme would be expanded further and more youth initiatives would be launched.

The prime minister said it was “unfortunate” that billions of dollars were wasted by delaying the construction of projects such as the Neelum Jhelum hydro project and the Reko Diq mining project.

The premier stressed that resources should be spent on equipping the youth with high-quality education, instead of “creating divisions and sowing seeds of hate among youth”.

The prime minister said his provincial government had set up the Punjab Endowment Fund and in eight years Rs 20 billion were given as scholarships to high achievers in studies.

Millions of students were equipped with technical education under the Punjab Skills Development Programme, he recalled.

Similarly, he said, hundreds of students were sent to Turkiye and China so that they could learn Turkish and Chinese. Now many of those Chinese speaking Pakistanis were working in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project as interpreters and translators.

About 75,000 vehicles were distributed among the people so that they could earn their living, he said, adding during his government tenure in Punjab, Danish schools were established so that orphans and children from less privileged backgrounds could get education.

He said the federal coalition government saved Pakistan from economic default and distributed Rs 66 billion among the flood affected families through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

Billions of rupees were also spent on the provision of food, drinking water, medicines, blankets, tents and mosquito nets to the flood-hit people, he said, adding Pakistan’s friends, including China, Turkiye, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union provided assistance for the citizens devastated by the floods.

He said he was willing to talk with the opposition leadership in the larger national interest. However, he reminded that the opposition had double standards as it was not willing to talk with the parties in the coalition government during the last four years.

The prime minister said it was unfortunate that billions of dollars of the nation were wasted by delaying the construction of projects such as Neelum Jhelum hydro project and Reko Diq mining project.

He stressed that the nation’s resources should be spent on equipping the youth with high quality education instead of creating divisions and sowing seeds of hate among them.

He assured that more funds would be allocated for the education sector and for equipping the students with the latest skills.

Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal shed light on the salient features of the youth initiatives.

He said the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government during its last year had allocated Rs 1,000 billion for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). While the PTI government slashed the development programme and brought it down to Rs 550 billion during its term, he added.