ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday stressed the need to align the country`s civil service with modern technology and international standards of public service, and emphasised its revitalisation to enhance effectiveness.

Presiding over a meeting on civil service reforms, the PM said the civil service played a key role in the practical performance and implementation of the government`s policies across various ministries and sectors.

Calling the comprehensive and effective reform of the civil service a government`s priority, he directed the inclusion of input from public representatives and those of government officials in administrative and institutional reforms of the civil service.

Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal briefed the prime minister on the proposed civil service reforms. He said there was significant room for improvement in the current system of recruitment, promotion, training, and capacity building of government officials within the civil service structure.

E-bikes for students While heading a meeting on Electric Vehicles (EV), the PM said encouraging the use of electric vehicles (EVs) would help save billions of dollars in valuable foreign exchange spent on fuel, support environmental protection efforts, and promote the localindustry.The prime minister directed officials to prepare a comprehensive action plan to make electric vehicles accessible to the common citizen. He announced that the federal government would provide electric bikes to top-performing students of all educational boards across the country including the federal board.

He vowed that jobless individuals would be provided with electric rickshaws and loaders on priority. He ordered a third-party validation of the entire process of EV distribution and the government support mechanism toensuretransparency.

The PM directed the launch of awareness campaign about the government assistance programmes for obtaining EVs.

A briefing was given in the meeting regarding the current status of EV manufacturers and the government`s supportive measures to make them accessible to the common people.

The meeting was informed that the government was taking steps to facilitate the acquisition of electric bikes, rickshaws, and loaders through low-cost loans and easy terms. It was further apprised that over100,000 electricbikes and over 300,000 loaders would be made available to the public under easy loans and at low costs through government support.

The meeting was informed that under this scheme, students who perform well at the intermediate level would be provided free electric bikes, while a special quota of 25 per cent was allocated for women. The remaining quota was distributed among the provinces based on population ratio, the PM was briefed. However, he directed the officials concerned to increase Balochistan`s quota up to 10 per cent.

Due to this scheme, the meeting was told, four new battery manufacturing companies were commencing operations in the country.