LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said terrorism and energy shortage are the major hurdles in the way of progress and prosperity of the country.

`Bullets are effective against terrorism but the cartridges of education, justice, health and employment opportunities are equally importance for combating this menace,` said the chief minister after distributing cash prizes among the students who got top positions all over the country in matriculation and intermediate examination of 2014 at a ceremony at Aiwan-iIqbal on Wednesday.

Some 418 position holders of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab and federal boards were given Rs180 million while 370 teachers showing excellent performance were given cash prizes of Rs55 million besides commendatory certificates at the ceremony also attended by Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal Khan, Education Minister Rana Mushhood, vice chancellors, parents, teachers, intellectuals, educationists and columnists.

The chief minister said some 50,000 armed forces personnel, besides a large number of innocent children, women, elder persons had fallen prey to terrorism.

`Ironically, both the killers and their victims recite the same Kalima. We have to take it seriously who has given the right of taking decisions through Kalashnikov in the garb of religion and why we have failed to achieve the objectives and targets of creation of Pakistan otherwise history will never forgive us,` he stressed.

Terming energy shortage another big challenge, the chief minister expressed the opti-mism that it would be overcome during the next three years through hard work and commitment.

`But if we could not defeat terrorism all the efforts to resolve the energy problem may not bear fruit,` said Mr Shahbaz. `Reforms in education system are necessary for achieving the desired results from the steps taken by the government for the promotion of education,` he said while appealing to the vice chancellors of universities, teachers, parents and all stakeholders to come forward and evolve such a system which could ensure a bright future to the country and aprominent status in the comity of nations.

The Punjab government is not only giving cash prizes to position holders from all over the country every year, but they are also being sent on study tour of prestigious educational institutions of Europe,` he said while looking towards comedian Sohail Ahmed who had earlier proposed that the students should also be sent to perform Umra instead of a tour of Europe.

`From next year, the Punjab government will arrange for the Umra of position holder students,` he said.