TAXILA: Punjab Minister for Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs Malik Taimoor Masood Akbar has claimed that homecoming of Suleman Shahbaz, son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and acquittal of Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah in a narcotics recovery case was a part of the “national reconciliation ordinance (NRO) II”.

He was addressing party workers on the eve of the inauguration of various road projects in Wah Cantonment on Friday.

He said that the government would provide all out resources and top standard sports facilities to the youth for their preparation and participation in international sports events.

“Budget of the sports department has been increased from Rs2 billion to Rs7.3 billion and 318 new sports facilities have been established in Punjab,” the minister revealed.

“To achieve goals, youth and sports committees will also be restored at the tehsil and district level in Punjab and it will be transformed into a true sports nursery,” he added. He further said that for the first time, a dedicated tourism force was created to facilitate tourists. Mr Masood said that the Sports and Youth Affairs Department of Punjab is going to launch the first-ever athlete card for the welfare of male and female athletes of the province in collaboration with the Bank of Punjab.

Earlier, addressing a function regarding e-rozgar at University of Engineering and Technology, Mr Masood said that the Youth Affairs Department Punjab in collaboration with PITB is making effective effort towards making the project a success.

Educated youngsters have been trained in freelancing with the help of PITB and Higher Education Department in three domains such as technical, non-technical and creative writing in 46 colleges and universities of the province.

“Youth of Punjab province is being imparted technical skills in various relevant fields through the E-Rozgar programme while people in dozens of programme centres are working right now in the province where thousands of youth are earning respectable livelihoods for their families,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2022