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

GILGIT: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday announced the immediate power supply of 100 megawatts for Gilgit Baltistan and a Rs1 billion endowment fund for the universities students.

The prime minister, who chaired the 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 flood 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, the prime minister announced Rs 1 billion merit-based endowment fund for the students of Baltistan University and Karakorum University.

Prime Minister Shehbaz told the GB cabinet members that the federal government would establish Daanish Schools in GB, on the pattern of Punjab province.

He said that 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.

He said that the provincial governments’ cooperation with the federal government for the economic stability was significant.

The prime minister told the participants that stock exchange has crossed the 92,000 mark and the increase in remittances, 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 uplift of GB, merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

The prime minister said that the federal government was taking measures to promote tourism in GB as Qatari government had also expressed interest to invest in tourism there.

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