JEDDAH, 24 May 2005 — Pakistan is moving fast on the path of socioeconomic growth, as the reforms initiated by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz have started bearing fruit, said a Pakistani minister.
Minister for Population Welfare Chaudhry Shehbaz Hussain said that socioeconomic situation in Pakistan has improved greatly and the impact is already visible.
“One indicator is free education in schools up to the upper levels and scholarships to students in rural areas,” Shehbaz said.
Shehbaz lived in Jeddah for 10 years; then left for Pakistan where he successfully contested the last parliamentary election and was inducted into the federal Cabinet.
Population growth affected development and needed to be checked, Shehbaz said. Pakistan’s rate of population growth was 1.9 percent, quite high by any standard. The government plans to bring it down to 1.3 percent.
Mass public awareness programs will be launched under a new initiative to check population explosion. For this purpose the government has allotted four billion rupees. International donor agencies such as the World Bank are pledging support for such programs, he said.
Shehbaz stated that the budget, for the next financial year, would provide great incentives for overseas Pakistanis. Commenting on the efforts by the Pakistani government to combat terrorism, the minister said the arrest of Abu Faraj Al-Libbi was a great achievement in this respect. This will deal a fatal blow to the Al-Qaeda network internationally. All credit goes to President Pervez Musharraf for the success of anti-terrorism campaign.
He denied that the foreign terrorists, arrested in Pakistan would be handed over to American security forces. Pakistani security and investigating agencies are capable of doing the job themselves.
Shehbaz said that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia see eye to eye on all international issues and matters confronting the Muslim Ummah.
