April 26, 2002	Friday	Safar 12, 1423

ISLAMABAD, April 25: A number of new mega development projects worth billions of rupees including Lyari Express Way, Northern Bypass and greater water supply schemes are being launched within this month throughout Pakistan to remove inter- provincial disharmony.

“New resource allocations are being worked out in such a manner that there is no quarrel among the provinces,” said President General Pervez Musharraf. Also greater provincial autonomy will be ensured in the future political set-up.

He said that the second phase of macro development projects was about to be launched for which he was reaching Karachi within this week. He said issues relating to water distribution were being resolved to the satisfaction of the provinces.

In a wide ranging interview with Dawn panel here on Thursday, he said that 10-year plan has been worked out to undertake a massive development programme in all the provinces with a view to removing inter-provincial disharmony.

“We have been successful, to major extent, in removing this inter-provincial disharmony but I assure you that it will be totally eliminated by treating all the federating units well and equally,” he said.

The President said that he was ensuring that smaller provinces should get bigger shares in development work so that injustices and sense of deprivation of decades could be removed.

Some of the important development projects, he said, will be completed within next three years that include Gawadar Port and Coastal Highways. The coastal highway projects, he said, had been started from Ormara and will end at Pasni.

The development of agriculture sector, the president said, was one of the major priorities of the government for which projects like Mirani Dam, Gomal Zum Dam, Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD), and Thal Canal had been initiated. “Almost seven km of Thal Kanal area had been completed,” he said adding that work on Kachi Kanal will also be launched within this year. He said that huge funds had been made available to take up new projects.

“We are not lying, we are not deceiving the people as was done in the past, and doing concrete work and that is why today I am enjoying more and more support and acceptability among the masses,” the President claimed.

Gen Musharraf termed his economic agenda as “highly significant” to bring about a real socio-economic change in the country.

He said that one of the important tasks of his government was to achieve the restructuring of the Central Board of Revenue (CBR). He agreed that there were problems and said, “this is really a difficult task to bring about some positive change in any organization and I agree with you that some time there is resistance against the change but I assure you that the restructuring in the CBR will be achieved.” The President said that documentation of the economy was helping to have more taxes through computerized system. “Discretionary powers of the tax officers have been remo