Punjab cabinet approves provision of Urdu medium books to govt schools.

LAHORE -- The Punjab Cabinet on Tuesday approved Education Professionals Standards Council Bill (2018) and provision of Urdu medium books to the students of government schools, clearing way for Urdu to be medium of instruction and English be taught as a subject.

The 22nd meeting of the provincial cabinet held at Civil Secretariat with Chief Minister Usman Buzdar in the chair, also approved Assessment Policy Framework of schools education department. It was decided to discontinue class V and VIII exams in phases.

The cabinet also approved long-awaited forests policy and changed the name of the district wildlife officer (grade-17) to assistant director wildlife (grade-17). It was decided to develop Kalabagh private game reserve in Mianwali district under section 20 of Punjab Wildlife Act.

The draft of Wildlife Protected Areas Act, 2019 was also approved.

The meeting approved special audit reports of C and W, housing and physical planning, local government and Cholistan Development Authority under PM's Global Sustainable Development Goals Achievements Programme for the financial year 2016-18.

Decides to discontinue class V, VIII exams in phases

The approval for constituting Punjab Local Government Finance Commission was also given while the agenda relating to giving state land to DHA Gujranwala was deferred. A committee headed by Law Minister Raja Basharat will submit final recommendations after going through this matter.

The signing...