SOHBATPUR: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday announced the construction of 12 Daanish Schools across Balochistan to provide equal educational facilities to the poor children of the province.

The prime minister, who earlier unveiled the plaque of the newly built smart school building, announced to develop the facility at par with the Daanish Schools of Punjab. He committed to inaugurate the upgraded school on March 23, to be equipped with IT facilities like e-library, hostel, solar energy and playgrounds.

PM Shehbaz, addressing a public gathering here after the inauguration of a rebuilt Government Boys Secondary School of Kili Jia Khan, highly applauded the performance of the government officers and provincial leadership for completing the school building within two months and also announced Tamgha-e-Khidmat award for three officers including the chief secretary and secretary of education.

The premier said that the coalition parties inherited a country with a breached IMF agreement, skyrocketing oil prices, and reduced wheat production.

He said the previous government failed to purchase gas when it was the cheapest in the international market and the incumbent government had to spend $27 billion for oil import.

The prime minister who also witnessed the sports match among the school students said the vision behind Danish Schools was to bring the children of the far-flung areas into the mainstream.

He got emotional while narrating the story of an orphaned girl student at the Danish School of Rahim Yar Khan who felt blessed to have found the facilities of education and residence when she felt helpless.

He asked the Balochistan chief minister to find out suitable land for the construction of Danish Schools in the province.

He told the students that education and skill training could only enable the country to cope with poverty and illiteracy. He said education was the only tool to put Pakistan on the course to progress and prosperity as well as bringing about a revolution.

The prime minister, who was given a briefing on the status of reconstruction and rehabilitation works, also interacted with the flood-affected families.

He expressed the hope that civilised societies would come up to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation of flood-hit Pakistan at the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan scheduled to be held in Geneva on January 9.

The prime minister said he was constantly contacting the leadership of friendly countries to invite them to the conference.

“Yesterday, I talked to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim…He assured of sending a delegation to the conference. He will also join through Zoom,” he said and mentioned his telephonic interactions with the leaders of Turkey, Qatar, and UAE for the purpose.

PM hopeful of world support at Geneva conference to meet reconstruction, rehabilitation challenges The prime minister said he would co-chair the moot with the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

However, he said the government and people of Pakistan would have to put in their efforts for rehabilitation.

He said the government had already distributed Rs100 billion among the affected people through BISP but a lot more funds were still needed to pay compensation for one million houses destroyed by the flood and many people were yet awaiting assistance for their rehabilitation.