Underprivileged section empowerment: 'Pakistan implementing Saarc's social charter'

The Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Dr Akram Shaikh has said Pakistan was implementing Saarc's social charter aimed at empowerment of underprivileged section of the society and its transformation to address the issue of poverty and ensure a promising future for the people in letter and spirit.
He made these remarks at a Saarc conference held in Colombo on August 8. He said discussions and conclusions of the conference would contribute significantly towards enhancing regional co-operation for poverty reduction.
Akram Shaikh added that poverty was one of the biggest challenges of the century and a major concern to South Asia, which has the highest number of poor, unemployed and illiterate people. He said South Asia, despite its enormous human and physical assets, was the most deprived region of the world.
He said that for various factors, the region's share in the world GDP continued to fall and currently it has less than 2 percent of the total world trade. Dr Akram Shaikh said It was imperative to analyse the factors that have contributed to the decay and slowing down of progress in the region.
He maintained that based on detailed analytical work, the regional countries should work towards a more respectable place in the comity of nations. He added that this approach would require an integrated and holistic approach, working collectively in the interest of the entire region and not at the cost of each other.
Above all, it would also require establishing trust and credibility with each other. He said it could only be possible by honestly appreciating the ground realities, understanding each others point of view and sincerely working towards dispute resolution and not dispute management or containment.
Dr Akram said Pakistan launched its first PRSP in 2003, which envisaged a high and sustainable pro-poor growth, improvement in governance, human resource development and strengthening of social safety nets for the vulnerable and chronically poor. He maintained that the government of Pakistan subsequently launched an integrated and holistic Medium-Term Development Framework (2005-10) with an overarching objective of poverty reduction, subsuming the strategy articulated in PRSP.
The specific allocations for poverty reduction and achieving MDG targets have been set at Rs 712 billion, which account for 35 percent of the total Public Sector Development Programme in MTDF. The Deputy Chairman told the conference that after successful implementation of the first PRSP, the pro-poor expenditures have reached 5.25 percent of the GDP in 2005-06 as against 3.6 percent of GDP in the year 2002-03. He noted that during the recent reviews of MTDF implementation, the government of Pakistan has further strengthened our focus on people-centered development efforts.
He added that a recent social and livings standard measurement survey suggested that poverty is on a falling trajectory in Pakistan. In addition, the government of Pakistan is strengthening safety nets to bring 10 percent of the low income group out of the perpetual poverty.
A nation-wide social mobilisation project is also being launched for organising rural poor into community organisations for their empowerment and uplift by harnessing their potential. He said these organisations will provide leverage to the public sector rural development projects by identifying and managing demand-based development schemes.
He said that high and sustainable pro-poor growth during the last three years at an average rate of 7.5 percent has led to a sharp reduction in poverty. Notwithstanding, a devastating earthquake and the rising oil prices, during the last fiscal year, Pakistan had maintained growth momentum with GDP growth at 6.6 percent.
Deputy Chairman told the meeting that overall macro-economic stability, enabling environment for investment, greater employment opportunities and enhanced pro-poor expenditures have facilitated the government for reduction in poverty.