MOHAMMAD Sarwar has vowed to get an extra five million children into school during his term as governor of Punjab.
The former Glasgow MP was sworn in yesterday as head of Pakistan's largest province.
Speaking after a ceremony at his new residence, Governor House in the provincial capital Lahore, he pledged to tackle an education "emergency".
He said: "Pakistan is surrounded by many problems: poverty, unemployment, health inequalities, an ongoing energy crisis, terrorism, and human rights violations. I have always believed that the best route out of these problems is through education."
It was revealed earlier this month that Mr Sarwar planned to prioritise education during his five year term as governor.
The literacy rate in Punjab is about 60% and an estimated five million primary school age children do not attend classes.
The former Labour MP aims to get an extra million youngsters into school each year. He used his first state address to explain his belief that politics was about "making things change for the better" and highlighted his own "humble" beginnings.
He said: "I got my primary education by walking miles every day to school and then sitting on the ground under a tree. Through my parents' sacrifice, my own determination, and some luck along the way, I was fortunate enough to achieve success.
"I want every child, no matter their background, to have the same opportunities as I had, to maximise their potential."
Mr Sarwar, 60, stepped down as MP for Glasgow Central in 2010 after 13 years at Westminster. Born in Pakistan, he has remained closely involved with the country's politics and was appointed governor of Punjab in June.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article