SIALKOT: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has stressed the need to promote knowledge-based education and personality building of the students to make Pakistan a developed and forward-looking country.

He also announced `Speedo bus service` between Sialkot and Lahore in few months.

Mr Sharif said this at a laptop distribution ceremony at the Government College Women`s University, Sialkot, on Monday.

Mr Sharif said 200,000 students were benefiting from the Rs17.5 billion Punjab Education Endowment Fund. He said that Rs5 billion would also be added to the endowment fund.

The chief minister also pledged to allocate funds in the coming financial budget for 150,000 more laptops. He said the PML-N government had already distributed 310,000 laptops to the brilliant students.

He said the government had also given Rs11 billion scholarships to students in the last seven years in Punjab.He said the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor would change the destiny of the country.

The chief ministerpraised teachers, saying dutiful teachers were a precious asset of society.

He added the students were the future of the country and the government was providing them maximum facilities, enabling them to serve the nation and the country in a better way.

He also urged the stakeholders to launch efforts for enhancing the literacy rate. He said there was an immediate need to root out illiteracy at grass roots level to bring about radical changesin every sphere of life.

He distributed laptops to 879 students of different government colleges.

A guard of honour was presented to the students at the ceremony where Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Vice-Chancellor Dr Farhat Saleemi, MNA Rana Shamim Ahmed, MLA Chaudhry Muhammad Ishaq , provincial minister Manshaullah Butt, MPAs Tariq Akhtar Subhani, Arshad Javaid Warraich, Shabeena Majeed Wyne and Gull Naz Pasha, Sialkot Mayor Chaudhary Tauheed Akhtar, Gujranwala Commissioner retired Capt Muhammad Asif,DeputyCommissioner Dr Asif Tufail, Regional Police Officer Muhammad Tahir and District Police Officer Dr Abid Khan were also present.