December 10, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 15, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: The first meeting of the Task Force on Poverty Alleviation and Employment Generation (PAEG) will be held here on Wednesday to discuss and propose various measures to reduce widespread poverty in the country.

The meeting will be presided over by its chairman Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Minister for Privatization and Investment.

The 21-member task force had been asked to give its report within a month.

Sources said that chief ministers of all the four provinces have demanded additional resources to meet the serious challenge of poverty across the country.

The government wanted more inputs to be offered by seven unofficial members of the task force to deal with the menace of poverty.

The representatives of international donor agencies, sources said, have also been invited to attend the first meeting of the task force so that a meaningful report could be prepared on poverty and employment generation.

Pakistan Institute of Development Economists (PIDE) President Dr A. R. Kamal, former provincial minister for finance Dr Shahid Kardar, prominent economist Dr Akmal Hussain, and former Chairman Privatisation Commission Dr Salman Shah will give their respective presentations on poverty.

State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat Hussain, who is also the member of the task force and who has in his latest SBP annual report said that poverty has increased to 33 per cent, will also give his point of view over the issue.

The officials of the Planning Commission who always differed with finance ministry over poverty related figures have reportedly prepared their own paper on latest situation to be submitted during the meeting.

A concerned official when contacted said that the PRGF will end in October 2004, providing an opportunity to adequately raise poverty related expenditure and to offer some relief in the shape of subsidy to the more vulnerable groups in the society.

“The country’s fiscal deficit should not be more than the rate of GDP growth if the government really wants to reduce poverty”, said an unofficial member of the task force. He said that Pakistan’s external and domestic debt was still not sustainable and needed to be drastically reduced so that its impact on poverty could be lowered.