Daily Times

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar Wednesday chaired a meeting of Punjab Daanish Schools and Centers of Excellence Authority at his office to review its performance.

Talking on the occasion, the chief minister expressed satisfaction that four Daanish Schools have been converted to solar energy in toto. He approved additional funds for providing free students uniforms while giving in-principle approval to raise teachers’ salaries according to the decision of the Punjab government.

Permission was also granted to start the internship programme along with recruitment on the administrative posts. Visits to tourist spots would be arranged for students along with awards for best performers.

Similarly, special rooms and canteens would be set up for boarding students’ meetings with the parents. The CM directed early completion of Daanish Schools in Taunsa, Bhakar, Mankera and Kot Qaisrani adding that funds be released for completion of ongoing projects. Permission was being granted to admit students’ siblings in Daanish Schools, he said and directed to early complete centers for excellence in Chakwal and Pir Mehal.

Punjab is credited to have Asia’s largest boarding institution, he maintained.

The new Daanish School would be started in Tandlianwala in a few weeks, he said. The DSA’s performance was a guiding light for others as it has performed well under vice-chairperson Sumera Ahmed, concluded the CM.

The meeting was told that food was daily supplied to 30,000 students by the Punjab government in Daanish Schools. Day scholars were being admitted and 96,000 saplings were planted in Daanish Schools while 40,000 students took part in annual sports in Mianwali.

Representatives of SED, finance and P&D departments, former MPA Maj (retd) Abdul Rehman Rana and MD DSA attended the meeting while Provincial Minister Murad Raas participated through video link.

Meanwhile, Usman Buzdar directed that work be accelerated on health-related projects including the mother and child hospitals as emergency blocks in Jinnah Hospital and the new General Hospital was need of the hour.

He was chairing a meeting at his office to review progress on the health projects.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, health secretaries and others attended the meeting. At the outset, the chief minister made it clear that delay in health projects was intolerable adding that ongoing schemes be completed without delay.

The emergency block of Services Hospital would be expanded to accommodate the burden, he added. Alongside, the CM directed to ensure quality as well as transparency in health schemes of far-flung areas.

The cardiac ward in DHQ hospitals would lessen the burden on other hospitals, he said, and added that the Punjab government would also build a hospital in Rakhni area of Balochistan to provide necessary medical facilities there.