LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said that the youth possessed great capabilities and was filled with the passion of serving the country. Talking to a delegation of the youth in London on Thursday, he said that the future of a prosperous and vibrant Pakistan was directly linked with the efforts of the youth. “There is no doubt that future of the country is vibrant and Pakistan is moving towards development and prosperity,” he said adding that everyone needed to make Pakistan vibrant and a developed country with collective efforts. The chief minister said: “We are required to follow the principles of hard work, honesty and trust for national development. It is sanguine that durable steps have been taken for the promotion of education at the grassroots along with an increase in schools’ enrollment and sufficient results have been yielded of the steps taken for the promotion of the education sector.” Shehbaz went on to say that the dream of development could not be materialised without equipping the youth with modern education and added that the Punjab government was following a comprehensive programme of promoting information technology and modern knowledge. He said that the journey of development can be achieved only by making youth as the engine of development. Punjab government has initiated unique programmes for empowerment of the youth and an investment to the tune of billions of rupees has been made to equip the youth with latest knowledge, he added. The Punjab CM said that a large number of Pakistani students were learning the Chinese language in different educational institutions within Pakistan as well as China, while many others were sent to Turkey to learn the Turkish language. Shehbaz further said that the government was speedily moving towards achieving the target of imparting skilled-based education to as much as two million youth and pointed out that thousands of youngsters were earning honourable livelihood by benefiting from different skills development programmes. “Merit is the only way-forward for development and therefore, it has been given priority in all the development programmes, he added. The chief minister said that positive results of different programmes, taken for improving the educational sector, have been achieved and reiterated the strong commitment that no dearth of resources would ever hamper the educational and training programmes relating to youth-empowerment. “We have always given priority to public service and our past and present is filled with the steps of public service and national development,” he added. Published in Daily Times, March 30th 2018.