RAWALPINDI: As the next elections are just few months away, the Punjab government is now offering laptops to the brilliant students of Pakistan’s federal government educational institutions.

This is in addition to provincial colleges and universities located in Rawalpindi.

The provincial government, in this regard, had finalised a list of 8,500 brilliant students of provincial and federal level institutions.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will distribute the laptops among the students at ceremonies to be held at Fatima Jinnah Women University and Jinnah Convention Centre on Monday.

A total 4,100 laptops will be given to the students of Islamabad educational institutions including Comsats, National University of Modern Languages (NUML), National University of Science and  Technology (NUST), National College of Arts, Federal Urdu University,  Quaid-e-Azam University and others.

In Punjab government schools, colleges and universities located in Rawalpindi, a total 4,400 brilliant students will get laptops.

Fatima Jinnah Women University students will get 1,041 laptops, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila students 1,110, Pir Mehar Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University students 1,500 laptops, Rawalpindi Medical College students 94 and the rest will be given to the students of government colleges.

“The lists of the brilliant students having 60 per cent marks in their previous examination had been obtained from Higher Education Commission (HEC) and names have been finalised,” said a senior education official in Punjab.

He said that the Punjab chief minister secretariat had prepared the final lists and given to the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) for the distribution.

When approached District Co-ordination Officer (DCO) Saqib Zafar for his comments, he said that the laptop scheme was the part of previous scheme and the provincial government had not launched any new scheme. “The lists and laptops had been handed over to the CDGR for the distribution which would be distributed at a ceremony in next two days,” he said.

However, political parties termed the distribution of laptops a violation of election commission’s directives in which it had banned diversion of funds to new development schemes.