MARDAN, Feb 24: Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti has asked the youngsters to spread the light of education so as to end the menace of terrorism and militancy from Pakhtun society and other parts of the country.

Mr Hoti was addressing students and participants of the laptop distribution ceremony held here on Sunday at the main campus of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM).

MNA Himayatullah and MPA Ghani Dad Khan were also present on the occasion besides vice-chancellor Dr Ihsan Ali, members of teaching staff and students of the university.

On the occasion, Mr Hoti distributed 35 laptops among position-holder students and lecturers, who performed well in their field of teaching at the university, under the “Nawy Sahar Laptop Distribution Scheme”. Under the scheme, a total of 965 laptops would be distributed among the position-holder students and teaching staff of the AWKUM and its affiliated colleges.

The chief minister said that with the establishment of the university the residents of Mardan and other surrounding cities would be able to get higher education in their own district.

“The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has increased the education budget from Rs1 billion to Rs4 billion, which shows its commitment to boosting the education sector in the province,” he said.

He said that the government had also launched “Stori Da Pakhtunkhwa Programme’ to provide opportunities to top students of government schools to continue their education.

He said that these scholarships would help create environment of healthy competition among students of government schools.

The chief minister said that the present government had allocated 70 per cent of resources to the girl’s education.

He lamented that last year no girl appeared in the SSC exams in Torghar district and that was a matter of concern for the government.

“Bearing this in mind, we launched a programme for motivating girls to get education in Torghar,” he said and added that the government now gave Rs1,500 as monthly stipend to each family of the girls in I-V classes and Rs2,000 for girls in VI-X classes.

“We’ve established 72 colleges during the last four and a half years in the province and 46 of them are for girls,” he said.

Earlier, the AWKUM VC briefed the chief minister about achievements of the university since its establishment in 2008.