PM Imran launches Ehsaas Education Stipends programme

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday launched the Ehsaas Education Stipends programme for "deserving" families so that they could send their children for education.

Addressing the launch ceremony for the programme in Islamabad, the premier said that 20 million children not going to schools was a "major issue" for the country, and regretted that due importance was not paid to their education, adding that it was important to rectify the issue.

He said a country's biggest assets "are its people" and that not providing them education was akin to "wasting your asset".

"By denying the opportunity for upwards [social] mobility, you do a great injustice with that segment," he said.

The stipend initiative, the premier said, would serve to "incentivise and encourage" children to attend schools.

The prime minister particularly highlighted how more girls were out of school than boys. "We did not give importance to education but especially, and unfortunately, we did not give importance to the girls' education," he said.

The prime minister said that a well-educated woman was of greater benefit to the society than a well-educated man because she "teaches her kids and changes the entire system of her household [such as] health and wellbeing of children, which have a lot of societal impact".

"The West says that we do not want to educate our girls but this is not the case. I've visited every region of Pakistan [...] and nowhere did I go and see such households where parents wanted their girls to not study," the he said.

PM Imran said other issues, such as ease of access, contributed more to a lack of girls' education than the will of the parents. He identified a dearth of schools and faculty as the driving factors behind the menace.

"Parents from everywhere ask me to open schools for girls so it is not that they don't want to educate [their daughters]," he said. "It was the government duty to facilitate them that was missing till now."

The prime minister also praised the incorporation of information technology (IT) in the programme to ensure transparency and ward off corruption.

"Through [the use of] IT, we will attain control over most of these issues and, in a very transparent manner, [distribute] these stipends to children and incentivise them and monitor them," he added.

According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office, the stipend will be given to "deserving parents", who can ensure 70 per cent attendance of their children in schools.

"In this programme, the amount of stipend has been kept especially higher for girls. School stipends are for primary, secondary and higher secondary education," it added.

A press release said that the programme would be rolled out nationwide across all districts.

It said that at the primary level, the boys will get quarterly stipends of Rs1,500 and girls Rs2,000; at the secondary level, the boys will get Rs2,500 and girls Rs3,000; and at the higher secondary level, boys will get Rs3,500 and girls Rs 4,000. The stipends will be issued every quarter.

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PDM decides to focus punjab for its protest campaign

Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has decided to focus on Punjab as the centre of its protest movement against the government, sources said.

The opposition parties alliance has decided to hold public meetings and road caravans in Punjab.

It is pertinent to mention here that the PDM has summoned its summit session on September 08 in Islamabad to decide about the strategy of the protest drive.

According to sources, the alliance will focus on Punjab and Balochistan provinces, while public meetings and road caravans will also be organized in rural parts of Sindh.

PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in a public meeting in Karachi on Sunday said that the opposition’s movement would no longer be restricted to only holding public gatherings but will launch a road caravan so that citizens can protest for their rights.

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Putin says US presence in Afghanistan ended in 'tragedies'

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the United States' 20-year campaign in Afghanistan ended in “only tragedies, only losses”.

The Russian leader has a track record of criticising Western countries for trying to impose their values on non-Western nations.

Moscow has regularly slammed the US policy in Afghanistan, which is now controlled by the Taliban after their takeover this month ahead of the American pullout on August 31.

Putin said on Wednesday that the US army tried to “engrain their norms” in war-ravaged Afghanistan for two decades, which he characterised as a futile exercise.

“The result is only tragedies, only losses for those that did it — for the US — and even more so for the people who live on Afghan territory,” he said.

It is “impossible to impose anything from outside”, he said.

He was speaking at a meeting with teenagers in the Russian far eastern city of Vladivostok to mark the start of the school year.

Last week, Putin said Russia would not interfere in Afghanistan and that Moscow had learned from the Soviet occupation of the country.

He has also complained about Western countries trying to place Afghan refugees in Moscow-allied Central Asian states.

Moscow has been cautiously optimistic about the new leadership in Kabul, saying it would not meddle in domestic affairs.

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Very soon, you will see a lot of things change: Maryam Nawaz

PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz Wednesday lashed out at the incumbent government and described its past three-year performance as "nothing short of "destruction".

Speaking to the media after appearing for a hearing of the Avenfield reference case, the PML-N leader said reconciliation was out of the question.

"One should not even hold talks with these people [government]," she said, adding that except for the PTI, all political parties should unite and think about the welfare of Pakistan.

She commented on the Media Regulatory Authority, saying that the government is creating hurdles for the media and Opposition, adding that the bill was a continuation of the incumbent government's policies aimed at censoring the media.

Maryam said Opposition parties should concentrate on how the government is employing efforts to rig the upcoming elections. She said the government was exacting political revenge in the name of accountability.

In response to a question on Nawaz Sharif's return, she said:

"Circumstances have changed a lot. Very soon, you will see a lot of things change. Nawaz Sharif will return to the country when it is necessary for him to do so."

Proceedings of the Avenfield Reference against the PML-N vice president and her husband, Captain (retd) Safdar, have been postponed till September 8.

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Jo Biden defends US bow out from Afghanistan

President Joe Biden on Tuesday mounted a fierce defense of his exit from Afghanistan as the “best decision for America,” the day after the US military withdrawal celebrated by the Taliban as a major victory.

“This is the right decision. A wise decision. And the best decision for America,” Biden said in an address to the nation in Washington after he stuck to an August 31 deadline to end two decades of bloodshed that began and ended with the Taliban in power.

He spoke after the United Nations warned of a looming “humanitarian catastrophe” in Afghanistan, underscoring the daunting challenges that the victorious Taliban face as they transform from insurgent group to governing power.
For America, Biden argued, the only choice in Afghanistan was “leaving or escalating.”

And the president, whose critics have savaged him for his handling of the withdrawal, said the frenzied airlift — which saw the United States and its allies fly more than 120,000 people fleeing the new Taliban regime out of Afghanistan — was an “extraordinary success.”

“No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history; only the United States had the capacity and the will and ability to do it,” he said.

In his remarks, he noted that 90% of Americans who were in Afghanistan and wanted to leave were able to leave. The White House later updated a transcript of his remarks to show that the correct figure was 98%.

Biden said the international community would hold Taliban leaders accountable for their promise to permit freedom of travel.

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PDM decides to focus punjab for its protest campaign

Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has decided to focus on Punjab as the centre of its protest movement against the government, sources said.

The opposition parties alliance has decided to hold public meetings and road caravans in Punjab.

It is pertinent to mention here that the PDM has summoned its summit session on September 08 in Islamabad to decide about the strategy of the protest drive.

According to sources, the alliance will focus on Punjab and Balochistan provinces, while public meetings and road caravans will also be organized in rural parts of Sindh.

PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in a public meeting in Karachi on Sunday said that the opposition’s movement would no longer be restricted to only holding public gatherings but will launch a road caravan so that citizens can protest for their rights.

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Very soon, you will see a lot of things change: Maryam Nawaz

PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz Wednesday lashed out at the incumbent government and described its past three-year performance as "nothing short of "destruction".

Speaking to the media after appearing for a hearing of the Avenfield reference case, the PML-N leader said reconciliation was out of the question.

"One should not even hold talks with these people [government]," she said, adding that except for the PTI, all political parties should unite and think about the welfare of Pakistan.

She commented on the Media Regulatory Authority, saying that the government is creating hurdles for the media and Opposition, adding that the bill was a continuation of the incumbent government's policies aimed at censoring the media.

Maryam said Opposition parties should concentrate on how the government is employing efforts to rig the upcoming elections. She said the government was exacting political revenge in the name of accountability.

In response to a question on Nawaz Sharif's return, she said:

"Circumstances have changed a lot. Very soon, you will see a lot of things change. Nawaz Sharif will return to the country when it is necessary for him to do so."

Proceedings of the Avenfield Reference against the PML-N vice president and her husband, Captain (retd) Safdar, have been postponed till September 8.

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