July 29, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 28, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 28: The Ministry of Communications has worked out a detailed plan to provide a large number of jobs to the unemployed educated youth throughout the country.

“Our new induction policy is ready to accommodate a huge number of people who will be offered employment purely on merit,” said Minister for Communications Ahmad Ali.

Speaking to Dawn here on Monday, he said the new jobs would be offered in the Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC), Port Qasim, National Highway Authority (NHA) and various other organisations of the ministry.

“The young generation desperately needs jobs and if we don’t give them jobs, they will be frustrated and would indulge in unlawful activities,” the minister said.

Initially, he pointed out, many contractual positions which fell vacant due to the completion of contracts of a number of people at various places would be made available to the job seekers.

He said the government was helping the PNSC to purchase new tankers within next three months period. A decision had also been taken to purchase ships for the PNSC, he said and added that the officials concerned were currently assessing as to how many tankers and ships were required to be purchased.

Mr Ali said a Trade Tower was being built at Port Qasim at a cost of $100 million to generate trade and business activities. A consortium of foreign companies led by overseas Pakistanis was bringing this $100 million new investment in the country, he added.

“This multi-storey tower will have all facilities like hotels, recreation centre, conference hall and will be fully air conditioned,” the minister for communication said. He said many new jobs could be made available after the completion of the trade tower. A beach was also developed in its vicinity.

He refuted the allegation that there was a lot of corruption in his ministry and said: “I have thoroughly checked through various sources and have come to the conclusion that there is no top-level corruption in the ministry.”

But he conceded that there did exist corruption at a lower level as was the case in other ministries and departments.

Replying to a question, he said a new water desalination plant was being installed at the KPT to provide clean drinking water to the Karachiites. A new power plant was being set up at Port Qasim to remove the shortage of electricity, he added.

One of the major jobs of the ministry of communications, he said, was to build road which was successfully being done. In this regarded he referred to the completion Pindi-Bhattian road and various other connecting roads in all the four provinces.