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Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Federal Minister for Privatisation & Investment
and chairman of the "Prime Minister's Task Force on Poverty Alleviation and
Employment Generation" will present the recommendations of PAEG to the Prime
Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and to the President General Pervez
Musharraf by next fortnight.
This was decided in a meeting of the PM's Task Force on PAEG after reviewing
the reports of the three sub committees and the steps taken during past four
years for the poverty alleviation and employment generation by the Government.
The meeting presided over by Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh also took into
consideration the ongoing status, performance and the capabilities of various
stakeholders including Public Sector Development Programme, Pakistan Center of
Philanthropy, Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority, SMEDA,
Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal and Khushhali Bank for formulating recommendations for
PAEG report.
Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that in view of 5 % growth in the economy, there
was a need to focus targeted programmes for reduction in poverty and creating
new job opportunities by extending incentives to the private sector and taking
further effective measures at government level.
He said that the government was committed for welfare of the people and was
striving hard to the poorer people of the country and making them a useful
citizen of the society through various short term, medium term and long term
programmes.
The participants opined that there was need to deal with the poverty at micro
level and to tackle with the structural issues promoting poverty and to pass
on the benefits of massive reduction in interest rates to the poorest people.
They also suggested that the corporate sector should undertake development in
a sustained manner. Steps should be taken to establish collaborated tax
incentives for philanthropy and the deserving people should be given training
at their door step on demand driven skills, they added.
The meeting also considered the health as a major factor towards the promotion
of poverty and finalized master list of suggestions for the final report.
Earlier, the Chairman NRB Mr. Danyal Aziz MNA, Ms. Shaheen Atiq-ur-Rehman, MPA,
Ms. Shehnaz Wazir Ali, ED, Pakistan Center of Philanthropy, Mr. Sikandar
Mustafa Khan, Chairman Technical Education & Vocational Training Authority,
Mr. Ghalib Nishtar, President Khushhali Bank, Brig (Retd) M. Sarfaraz, MD,
Bait-ul-Mal, CEO SMEDA and Mr. Wajid Rana JS (Policy) Finance Division briefed
the meeting regarding their operations and their impact on poverty alleviation
and employment generation.
The PM's Task Force is in the process of reviewing the current status of
poverty and unemployment in the country, assessing the impact of public sector
development and related programmes on employment generation and poverty
alleviation and the government policies and programmes for poverty alleviation
and employment generation through private sector development, to suggest
improvement and acceleration in the existing programmes, identify specific new
initiatives and to formulate its recommendations for an implementation
strategy. The Task Force is now preparing a draft presentation for the Prime
Minister for the poverty reduction and employment generation.
The Task Force includes members from the public sector Dr. Nasim Ashraf,
Chairman NCHD, Dr. Ishrat Husain, Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Mr. Javed
Sadiq Malik, Secretary Planning & Development, Mr. Waqar Masood Khsn,
Secretary Economic Affairs Division, Dr. Ashfaq Hasan Khan, Economic Advisor,
Finance Division, Dr. A.R. Kamal, Director PIDE, Dr. Nuzhat Ahmad, Director
Applied Economic Research Centre, Chairman, Planning & Development, Government
of Punjab/ Additional Chief Secretaries, Government of Sindh, NWFP and
Balochistan and Mr. Shaukat Hayat Durrani, Additional Secretary (EA), Prime
Minister's secretariat and the members from the private sector Mr. Farid
Rehman, Peshawar, Dr. Akmal Hussain Lahore, Dr. Salman Shah Lahore, Mr. Shahid
Kardar Lahore, Dr. Mushtaq Mirani, Hyderabad, Ms. Saadiqa Salahuddin Karachi
and Malik Naeem Khan from Quetta.