LAHORE: The Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday approved Education Professionals Standards Council Bill (2018) and provision of Urdu medium books to the students of government schools, clearing way for Urdu to be medium of instruction and English be taught as a subject.

The 22nd meeting of the provincial cabinet held at Civil Secretariat with Chief Minister Usman Buzdar in the chair, also approved Assessment Policy Framework of schools education department. It was decided to discontinue class V and VIII exams in phases.

The cabinet also approved long-awaited forests policy and changed the name of the district wildlife officer (grade-17) to assistant director wildlife (grade-17). It was decided to develop Kalabagh private game reserve in Mianwali district under section 20 of Punjab Wildlife Act.

The draft of Wildlife Protected Areas Act, 2019 was also approved.

The meeting approved special audit reports of C&W, housing and physical planning, local government and Cholistan Development Authority under PM’s Global Sustainable Development Goals Achievements Programme for the financial year 2016-18.

Decides to discontinue class V, VIII exams in phases

The approval for constituting Punjab Local Government Finance Commission was also given while the agenda relating to giving state land to DHA Gujranwala was deferred. A committee headed by Law Minister Raja Basharat will submit final recommendations after going through this matter.

The signing of MoU between Punjab police and public security department of Chinese Jiangsu province for enhancing bilateral cooperation was handed over to the cabinet committee for legislative business which will submit its recommendations after detailed deliberations.

The meeting endorsed the decisions made in the 19th meeting of the cabinet standing committee for finance and development.

The chief minister directed to make foolproof security arrangements in the province on Christmas and birth anniversary of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Additional force should be deputed to protect churches, he added.

“Public service is our only agenda and no one will be allowed to obstruct the journey of development,” the CM said.

The IG Police informed the meeting that the law and order situation improved and the crime rate decreased. Police have ensured effective implementation on the steps taken for the elimination of terrorism under NAP, he added.

The ministers, advisers, special assistants, the chief secretary and high officials attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2019