The nation will defeat the enemy of peace : Khalil Tahir Sandhu

Lahore : Provincial Minister for Minorities and Human Rights Khalil Tahir Sandhu has said that the nation will defeat the enemy of peace and country with the power of education. Despite the sacrifices of our thousands of citizens along with high police and security officials, our spirits as one nation are high to discourage the vested interests of the terrorists who want to demoralise us with their cowardly activities of bomb blasts.

As a special initiative of Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, the educational scholarships cheques amounting to Rs.5.2 million were distributed among 179 talented students belonging to the minority community of  Lahore division . These checks were distributed by Punjab Minister for Minorities Affairs & Human Rights Khalil Tahir Sindhu, MPAs Tariq Masih Gill,Shehzad Munshi and Kanji Ram during a ceremony held at Town Hall Lahore here today . Secretary Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Asim Iqbal, Deputy Secretary Hammad ul Hassan,  representatives of district administration and minority community along with parents of the students were present on the occasion.

Punjab Minister for Minorities Affairs & Human Rights Khalil Tahir Sindhu congratulated the recipients of the scholarships and said that CM Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif had allocated Rs.30 million for providing educational scholarships to the talented students of minorities during the current year while the scholarships of same amount had been distributed among the minority students during the last year.

He said that as many as 658 students from Minorities are being distributed educational scholarships of the session 2015-16 through out the province.

He said that Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has always encouraged the talented and able students without any discrimination by providing them handsome scholarships, laptops,IT education, skills training and other facilities on merit basis which would help in bringing about the education revolution for the rapid development of the country.

Mr.Sandhu said that educational scholarships were being provided purely on merit basis with complete transparency.  He asked the students to focus their attention on getting education and skills for their own and national prosperity.  He informed that the Punjab govt. has announced even more scholarships for the minority students and the talented students could apply for the scholarships by February 28 .

The Minister said that the policy of 5% quota of minorities in govt. jobs had been implemented in letter and spirits on the orders of CM Punjab and the employees from Minorities were serving in police, judiciary, civil services and other departments on key posts through this policy.

Parliamentary Secretary for Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Tariq Gill, MPAs Shehzad Munshi and Kanji Ram said that the minority citizens were also serving equally as Pakistani and the present government was protecting their rights for bringing them in the main stream of national development.

They thanked Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and CM Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif for looking after the rights of the minorities.

Secretary HR Asim Iqbal greeted the students who had been selected for educational scholarships on merit and said that the CM Punjab had encouraged the talented students without any discrimination.

He said that the promising and capable students were our valuable asset and they would be provided all out resources and assistance for imparting them with higher education and skills.