Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Saturday highlighted a series of development and welfare initiatives, announcing that for the first time in Punjab, 13,000 new businesses have been launched through interest-free loans to entrepreneurs. She stressed that industrial development was the only path to progress.
During a meeting with a delegation of the 55th Staff Course of Pakistan Navy War College, led by Rear Admiral Sohail Ahmed Azmi, the chief minister also welcomed officers from all three armed forces of Pakistan and those from 15 friendly countries, including Palestinians, reiterating her government’s support for Palestine.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif informed the delegates that work on the world’s largest 1,000-bed government cancer hospital in Lahore would be completed within ten months. Following her visit to China, a co-ablation machine had been ordered, now enabling cancer treatment in Punjab without surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy.
She added that the first Institute of Cardiology for Sargodha division was nearing completion, while 2,500 health centers across Punjab had been upgraded into quality hospitals. In addition, treatment was being delivered in villages and cities through field hospitals and clinics-on-wheels. She noted that the province had carried out Pakistan’s largest rescue and relief operation, rescuing 2.5 million people and providing them with shelter and food.
The chief minister also briefed the delegation on infrastructure and environmental measures, saying that 20,000 km of roads had been built and repaired under the Punjab Development Programme and Lahore Development Plan. She said anti-smog guns would be deployed to combat pollution, while wildlife rangers had been introduced for the first time in Punjab.
She further announced that 1,100 electric buses were being inducted to provide modern travel facilities to citizens at a subsidized fare of just Rs20 per ride, alongside urban beautification and the restoration of tourism sites.
