Shahbaz Sharif distributes lending money cheques among the borrowers

Lahore : Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has said that the CM Self Employment Scheme of the Punjab government is a revolutionary program that is proving helpful in bridging the gap between poverty, unemployment, and rich and poor.

The chief minister expressed these views at a ceremony held at Badshahi Masjid in Lahore in connection with the CM Self-Employment Scheme. CM Shahbaz Sharif said today in this ceremony there are great mothers, sons and elderly persons and I salute them on the behalf of the Punjab government for deciding to lead a respectful life through honesty, and hard work despite seeking alms from others.

He said under this scheme, interest-free loans worth Rs 40 billion has been distributed in 18 lakh needy families in six years and 2.25 cror people have been benefited from the loans.

He said that the return of loans is 99.9 percent and today more than 60 crore rupees will be distributed in 25000 families due to which their new lives will begin. He said 1.8 million families in the Punjab have been given interest-free loans under the scheme due to which they are able to earn a respectful leaving.

He said on the one hand there are great Pakistanis who have repaid the loans while on the other hand there are very rich persons who have got written off loans worth billions of rupees through approaches and bribes despite having Mercedes cars, factories and lucrative posts.

He said he salutes these great Pakistanis who have returned loans and used them with honesty and sincerity. He said lofty minarets of the Badshahi Masjid are witnesses to this fact. He said in this ceremony being held in this mosque we all pray that Allah Almighty give strength to governments, rulers, politicians, judges and the rich that they take step ahead and hold the hands of the poor people.

He said the idea of this great program came to my mind when I had met Dr Amjad Saqib during my exile and at that time Dictator Musharraf was ruling the country. He said I had prayed that the PML-N will work on this unique and innovative idea if it came to power so that millions of people can become self-employed. He said this idea came into my mind in 2005 and today is 2018, and I am satisfied and happy that Allah Almighty gave strength and enabled me to give practical shape to this program.

The Chief Minister said under this program these great Pakistanis can get interest free loans up to 50,000 rupees and this program is running across the Punjab simultaneously. He said on the other hand there is aristocracy which has got written off loans worth billions of rupees but moving in luxurious cars.

He said this is the class difference between the rich and the poor, and if this difference continuous running in the same way, everything will be uprooted. Allah Forbid! He said for the elimination of unemployment and poverty, economy should be moved at the faster pace, agriculture and industry should be promoted and the program of small loans should be strengthened.

He said from Karachi to Peshawar influential and rich people got write off loans on political basis by so-called aristocracy. He said this was not the ideology of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal, neither had they dreamt Pakistan in which rich could deprive the poor of their hard-earned income. He said through this programme, the government has taken the revolutionary steps to bridge the gap between rich and the poor.

He said the Punjab Educational Endowment Fund is also such a historical measure through which resource-less students are getting higher education and by the next two months the number of beneficiaries from this fund will increase to three and a half lakh. He said under this program thousands of girls and boys from poor families have completed their education and now serving the nation after becoming engineers, doctors, teachers and economies.

He said talented students from Balochistan, Azad Kashmir, KPK and Sindh have also been included in this program. He said this is that revolutionary program which is transforming Pakistan into a welfare state dreamt by Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal.

The Chief Minister said if Allah Almighty gave us chance again to serve the country, the program will be started in all federating units of Pakistan so that Pakistanis get respectable employments and become self-reliant and we will bury begging once and a for all. He said we have given Azad Kashmir an amount of Rs 1.5 billion from our funds this year so that welfare projects move forward there.

He said the rich plundered the national kitty mercilessly and made the country bankrupt and this is not a fairy-tale, but people witnessing this. He said for elimination of poverty and unemployment, stability is needed, Pakistan cannot afford unity and differences because these are poisons. He said if different and disunity is fanned then everything will turn to ashes Allah forbid. He said well-aware Pakistanis will decide in the 2018 elections that the culture of allegations, lies and abuses should continue or it should be buried. He said PML-N eliminated loadshedding and in 2013 there was darkness everywhere in the country: educational institutions, hospitals, government offices and markets have become deserted places due to darkness.

He said there was unemployment everywhere and the government of PML-N generated thousands of megawatts of power in just four and a half years to rid the nation of darkness. He said those who made lofty claims of generating electricity in KPK have been failed to produce even a single kilowatt of electricity while there is the capacity to create thousands of megawatts of electricity in the province.

He said in the same way the project of 50 megawatt was installed Nori Abadi in Sindh and even it was installed at the double rate than in Punjab. He said the country has unlimited resources but the rich is becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer. He said we should all join hands for progress in Punjab, Sindh, KPK, Balochistan and Azad Kashmir as Pakistan will progress when all these federating units will progress.

He said hard work and honesty should be our founding principles so that Pakistan can get respectable place in the community of countries.

The chief minister distributed cheques under this program. Provincial minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, Malik Nadeem Kamran, Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman, Akhuwat Chief Dr. Amjad Saqib and other people were also present in the ceremony in large numbers.