<\/p>\n
Vows to transform Punjab into “economic hub”, free medicines at government hospitals and introduce dedicated helpline for women.<\/p>\n
PML-N Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz made history<\/a> on Monday after being elected the first female chief minister of Pakistan from Punjab. Maryam \u2014 who made her parliamentary debut this year after winning the Feb 8 polls from PP-159 \u2014 achieved a landslide victory against the opposition\u2019s Rana Aftab Ahmad, securing all of the 220 votes.<\/p>\n In a lengthy victory speech, Maryam noted that there were many expectations from her and vowed to go \u201cabove and beyond\u201d. She further said that her party had developed an \u201cextensive and comprehensive\u201d agenda for the province, which would be implemented from today.<\/p>\n Dawn.com<\/em> takes a look at some of the many promises Maryam made in her victory speech.<\/p>\n Maryam said that she plans to transform Punjab into an \u201ceconomic hub\u201d by creating an enabling environment for businessmen.<\/p>\n She said the government\u2019s job was to create policies, incentivise businessmen, and to remove bureaucratic hurdles and \u201cred-tapism\u201d.<\/p>\n She said that the businesses being run by the provincial government should be converted into a public-private partnership.<\/p>\n \u201cMy job is to make policies in Punjab, to provide an enabling environment, and to regulate \u2014 we will do this but at the same time we will facilitate the business community so that they invest and economic revival begins,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Maryam also said that her mission included making the lives of the province\u2019s youth easier. She said she had extensive plans and programmes to cater to \u201call kinds of youth\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf any child wants to study on merit and they do not have the means, the Punjab government will provide funds for them,\u201d she said. She highlighted that the Punjab Education Endowment Fund would be revived and taken forward.<\/p>\n Furthermore, she added that the government would decide the criteria for sponsoring the education of gifted boys and girls, who were capable of getting into Ivy league schools and other renowned universities but were unable to go due to financial restraints.<\/p>\n Maryam also said that she would revive the youth loan programme that was launched by her father Nawaz Sharif, which also included schemes for providing interest-free loans, skills training and devices such as laptops and tablets.<\/p>\n She further said that there were several government internship programmes currently underway but they were not paid. \u201cSo I have told the institutions to increase the internship programmes and to make them paid so that the intern is paid a minimum of Rs25,000,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Terming information technology startups \u201clow-hanging\u201d fruit, she promised to provide the youth with the resources to start their own businesses. \u201cFor startups, we will also set up incubators and will do hand-holding and ensure that they reach their end goal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Maryam said that a plan had also been formulated to give students electric motorbikes. She said that she would continue to interact with the youth and her doors would always be open for them.<\/p>\n Maryam also announced that she would introduce a school transport system in Punjab. She said that she would also focus on developing the curriculums of government schools.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is my dream, as a mother, that no child should be out of school due to a lack of finances, that they get the best education,\u201d Maryam said.<\/p>\n \u201cI am working on a model for a private-public partnership to incentivise education,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Talking about differently-abled children, she said that state-of-the-art education centres would be established in each district.<\/p>\n Maryam said that her first priority was to ensure the presence of capable doctors as well as equipment at basic health units, rural health centres and tehsil headquarter hospitals.<\/p>\n She asserted that she wanted each district of the province to have a \u201cstate-of-the-art hospital\u201d, so that patients would not have to travel extensively for medical treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter five years when I leave the government, I want that there is no district which does not have a state-of-the-art hospital,\u201d she said, vowing to achieve this within five years.<\/p>\n \u201cFree medicines will be provided at every government hospital across the province from today onwards,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Maryam also stated that Punjab\u2019s first air ambulance would be announced within the next 12 weeks to improve healthcare for the people living in mountainous and hilly areas.<\/p>\n She also said that she had directed Rescue 1122 to begin a \u201cmotorised ambulance service\u201d. Maryam said that she would also introduce an \u201ceffective health care\u201d for the province.<\/p>\n Maryam emphasised that the safety of women in the province was her first priority. \u201cTherefore, I am announcing a dedicated helpline for women,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Mariam asserted that she wanted to create a better, safer Punjab for women, adding that it was her responsibility to provide women with a safe and secure environment.<\/p>\n She added that she would work on creating \u201crespectable\u201d working women hostels. \u201cAs a mother, I understand that working women worry about their children,\u201d she said, stating that she \u201cwill work to create daycare centres at every workplace\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHarassing any woman is Maryam Nawaz\u2019s red line,\u201d she affirmed. Maryam lauded Gulberg Circle ASP Shehr Bano for protecting the life of a girl<\/a> wearing a dress with Arabic calligraphy from an attack by a charged mob in Lahore yesterday.<\/p>\n \u201cTo empower women financially, socially and professionally, Maryam Nawaz is willing to work 24\/7,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Furthermore, she said she had a special package in the works for the transgender community to bring them into mainstream society.<\/p>\n She said it was her responsibility to protect marginalised communities \u2014 including women and minorities \u2014 and change \u201csocietal attitudes\u201d towards them.<\/p>\n She said minorities were the \u201ccrowning glory\u201d of the country. She said she dreamed of a Punjab where any minority did not have to spend \u201cthe night in fear.\u201d<\/p>\n Maryam said that it was now \u201chigh time\u201d to focus on \u201cdigital Punjab\u201d. She said it was her plan to create at least five digital cities by the end of her tenure.<\/p>\n She also said she had given someone the responsibility of bringing \u201ctech giants\u201d to the country. \u201cWhatever incentive they require, the resources they need, the government of Punjab will provide [\u2026] we will ask them to come and open their offices in Punjab,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Maryam also pledged to provide free WiFi in major cities of Punjab. She said that a pilot project would soon be launched in Lahore. She asserted that she would also revive e-libraries in the province.<\/p>\n She said that it was the Punjab\u2019s government responsibility to facilitate each and every young person interested in artificial intelligence and machine-learning to enhance their skills.<\/p>\n Maryam said that a \u201csafe\u201d Punjab was her dream. She noted that the Safe City project was introduced in Lahore, adding that it could also help in improving the traffic system.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the first phase, we are introducing Safe City projects in 18 cities. At the end of five years, then each district will have an extensive Safe City project,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She asserted that this would improve the crime rate in the province. She said that she would also introduce women police stations. She said that she would also have \u201czero tolerance\u201d for police high-handedness.<\/p>\n Commenting on the incident in Taxila, where a police officer slapped an elderly lady, she said that she would order and investigation.<\/p>\n She further said that she would work on improving the police\u2019s response time.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vows to transform Punjab into “economic hub”, free medicines at government hospitals and introduce dedicated helpline for women. PML-N Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz made history on Monday after being elected the first female chief minister of Pakistan from Punjab. Maryam \u2014 who made her parliamentary debut this year after winning the Feb 8 polls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/02\/261600574e8e80d.png?r=174933","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Transforming Punjab into an \u2018economic hub\u2019<\/h2>\n
Improving lives of the youth<\/h2>\n
School transport system for Punjab; centres for differently-abled children<\/h2>\n
Punjab\u2019s \u2018first air ambulance\u2019; free medicines<\/h2>\n
Dedicated helpline for women; daycare centres at workplaces<\/h2>\n
Package for transgender community<\/h2>\n
Digital Punjab<\/h2>\n
Safe City projects in major cities<\/h2>\n