PM announces 100MW power supply for GB, Rs1bn endowment fund for students

GILGIT: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday announced immediate power supply of 100 megawatts to Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and a Rs1 billion endowment fund for the university students.

The Prime Minister, who chaired a special meeting of the GB cabinet during his daylong visit here, expressed satisfaction and pleasure over the timely completion of Bubar model village, which he earlier inaugurated, to provide housing facility to the people affected by floods in 2022.

He instructed the GB administration to establish educational institutions, playgrounds, power transmission and other facilities in Ghizer district.

Besides announcing an immediate power supply of 100 megawatts to GB, PM Sharif announced Rs 1 billion merit-based endowment fund for the students of Baltistan University and Karakorum University.

He told the GB cabinet members that the federal government would establish Daanish Schools in GB on the pattern of Punjab province.

He said his government was actively working for the uplift and welfare of the GB people.

He recalled that while being Punjab chief minister, his government had given a Rs1 billion gift to uplift GB’s education sector.

The Prime Minister told the participants that stock exchange has crossed the 92,000 mark and the increase in remittances, number of tax return filers and reduction in inflation were pleasant developments for national economy.

He lauded the role of all provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and GB in the national development and highlighted his government’s special focus on the development of GB, merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

PM Sharif said the federal government was taking measures to promote tourism in GB, adding the Qatari government had also expressed interest to invest in tourism there.

Federal ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Attaullah Tarar, Amir Muqam and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, besides relevant senior officers also attended the GB cabinet meeting.