PM urges women to play role for country’s development

Islamabad: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid tribute to  the women for their contribution for the country, saying that “they were driving engine for the prosperity and development of the country”.

The prime minister said that Rs5 billion amount was nothing but peanut but they hoped that the days would come when they would allocate Rs500 b for the empowerment of the women.

PM Shehbaz urged the women to play their due role to make Pakistan a strong country.

“This is regretting that the women who are enrolled in the medical colleges most of them do not serve in the field,” said the prime minister while addressing a ceremony held in Islamabad.

The PM said that Punjab Skilled Development company was a project with the collaboration of the UK government in Punjab and they provided training to women in both rural and urban areas.

“We invested in the students and in the girls’ education. We had fixed a monthly stipend for them,” said the PM, adding that “And they continued to learn different skills,”.

He stated that once again, they started another project from Multan where they established centers to provide training to the women.  Above all that, he said the economic challenges were the main challenges. The PM expressed gratitude for the Saudi government for sending $2 billion.  He stated that for how long they would continue to get the loan.

“A country in our neighboring, which I don’t want to name, did agreement with the IMF in 1991 and today , that country has made huge progress,” said the prime minister.

Shehbaz Sharif urged the audience to learn from the past as many women were there who played important role for the country’s development. He also mentioned Benazir Bhutto who served as the prime minister.

“Here, many big minds are also sitting. But we have to create opportunities,” he said.

The PM also highlighted the role of the women in the rural areas, saying that the contribution of the rural women was highly commendable. He said it did not mean that the urban women were not playing their role but the rural women were making huge contribution.

He also stated that they had allocated funds for the martyred, adding that they faced huge economic challenges during the past year.

“The IMF board will sit tomorrow, and I ask you for the prayers for the loan program,” said PM Shehbaz, adding that but it was regretting that they were going to the IMF again.

Referring to another initiative, the prime minister said that they chose agriculture, exports, and minerals. Pakistan, he said, had huge assets of minerals and billions of rupees gone wasted over the litigation for the treasure of minerals in the past.  

He gave example of Japan and other countries, saying that they worked hard and turned their countries into power states. The history, he said, was witnessed what Muslims did here in this part of the world.