Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has announced a package of welfare initiatives for Azad Kashmir, including electric bikes and interest-free loans for residents of the region.

Addressing an election rally in Muzaffarabad, the chief minister said that special persons in Azad Kashmir would receive the Himmat Card, a scheme already in place in Punjab.

She added that 2,000 scholarships and 5,000 laptops had been allocated for the youth of Azad Kashmir.

The chief minister said that 15 Clinic on Wheels units were being introduced in Azad Kashmir and vowed that unemployment among the youth would not be tolerated under a PML-N government.

Maryam Nawaz said that new hospitals were being built across Punjab, including the 1,000-bed Nawaz Sharif Cancer Hospital in Lahore, which she said would also benefit patients from Azad Kashmir.

She said that 200,000 workers were engaged in cleaning cities and villages across Punjab under the Suthra Punjab initiative and pledged to launch a similar Suthra Kashmir programme in the region.

The chief minister said that she would request Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to extend the Apni Chhat Apna Ghar housing scheme to Azad Kashmir.

She noted that 30,000 poor families in Punjab had each been given five acres of farmland free of cost for 20 years, along with Rs50,000 per acre to support cultivation.

She said that 200,000 houses had already been completed in Punjab under the housing scheme, with a target of 500,000 houses to be completed over the next three years.