QUETTA: With their concerted efforts, the army and the provincial government have taken guns from the youths of Balochistan and given them pens. To a large extent they have brought the province out of the mayhem and chaos it had been facing a couple of years ago.

This was stated by Adviser to Chief Minister on Education Sardar Raza Muhammad Barech and Commander of Southern Command Lt Gen Muhammad Naseer Khan Janjua while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a hostel for students of the FC Public Boys School at Ghazaband Scouts headquarters here on Friday.

Take a look: Army to back Balochistan’s quest for peace, progress

The hostel building comprises 12 rooms, each for 50 students, a mosque, a library, a dining room and a recreation room.

Addressing the gathering, Sardar Barech said the government had increased its educational budget by up to 24 per cent to provide maximum educational facilities to youths of the province and to bring them on a par with youths of the other provinces of the country.

He said that because of these efforts, the number of government schools in the province had increased to 13,000, leading to a corresponding increase in the number of enrolled students.

He said the province still needed about 14,000 more schools because a large number of students still could not go to schools because of absence of educational institutions in their areas. He said the government would continue these efforts and more schools would be built across the province as quickly as possible to bring about an educational revolution in the province.

He lauded the efforts of the Frontier Corps and the army for establishing schools and colleges in different areas of the province where the government could not provide such facilities because of its meagre budget resources.

He said the government was also concentrating on giving technical education to students and, with the joint efforts of the army and the provincial government, problems of the education sector would be solved.

Commander of Southern Command Lt Gen Muhammad Nasser Khan Janjua said the army and the provincial government had jointly taken guns from the youths and given them pens.

He said a large number of youths were now taking interest in acquiring education and excelling in different fields.

He said that backwardness could not be removed from Balochistan without spreading education. “The way of development passes through education and we have to equip our youths with education,” Lt Gen Janjua said, adding that army, the FC and the Balochistan government had all joined hands to promote education in the province.

He said that national flags of the country, which used to be burnt a couple of years ago, were now being hoisted across the province and all the people of the province celebrated with fervour the recent Independence Day of the country.

He paid rich tribute to the people of Balochistan for playing a significant role in steering the province out of the gloom, crisis and chaos.

“We appreciate the people of Balochistan who have played a great role in making their province peaceful,” he said.

Earlier, Frontier Corps DIG Brigadier Tahir Mehmood gave a detailed briefing about educational services being provided by the FC in different areas of the province.

He said that 40 schools and colleges had been set up by the FC in different areas of Balochistan including Quetta, Khuzdar, Dera Bugti, Sui, Muslim Bagh and Zhob. The 40 educational institutions include six colleges.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2015

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