29 August 2004	Sunday	12 Rajab 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 28: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz won a vote of confidence from the National Assembly on Saturday and spelled out his government's plans to counter the challenges the country was facing in the areas of law and order, defence, foreign policy and economic reforms.

Amid opposition's boycott, Mr Aziz got the trust vote from 191 treasury members in the special session of the 342-member house. Opposition parties said their participation in the process would have given the impression as if the people had accepted the election of a third prime minister in about one and a half years.

Addressing the house after the vote, which would give him about three years in office, Prime Minister Aziz said: "We want to take the opposition along and we will accept truthful and correct advice from everywhere."

However, he added, opposition was equally responsible to take the house business forward. He pledged to give the country a competent and responsible government which would be honest and hard working.

Mr Aziz said he and his team would put themselves to accountability and set traditions of accountability in every sphere of life.

He said the nation had broken the begging bowl and 'we are standing on our own feet with dignity and respect'.

He said while starting a new era with renewed spirit we must realize that the biggest challenge facing the country was law and order, especially terrorism, which could no longer be controlled through traditional methods and "we (will) have to reorganize law-enforcement agencies and streamline their capabilities".

The judicial system, he said, also needed to be reshaped to meet the modern-day demands.

He called for addressing the causes that were pushing people towards crime and said: "We will have to eliminate the menace of poverty from the country to achieve this goal."

He said the second biggest challenge was safeguarding the country's borders and strengthening its defence. "We have no expansionist designs, but we cannot ignore the requirements of our defence and national security," he stressed.

The premier reiterated that the country's nuclear programme was its sole deterrent and thus was of central importance in its defence. He said the nuclear programme would not only continue but its effectiveness would also be enhanced.

Referring to the third challenge he said: "The sole objective of our foreign policy will be to safeguard national interests and we will take all decisions keeping in view best interests of the country."

He said Pakistan would work to improve its ties with all countries, particularly the big powers, the European Union, Asean, Saarc, Eco and the Middle East.

"Our fourth and biggest challenge is to take the fruits of economic progress to grass roots by maintaining the direction which we have set in the past five years," he said.

The country, he said, had achieved the objective of growth and "now we will concentrate on its distribution. Pakistan has attained economic sovereignty and no country can protect its sovereignty without economic strength".

Mr Aziz said his government would also give priority to the agriculture and industries sectors to generate employment. He promised that prices would be kept at 'reasonable level' and sufficient supply of essential commodities would be ensured.

He mentioned education, health, communication, housing and construction as other sectors that would be the priority of his government.

He informed the house that a comprehensive rural development programme was being initiated and said that the objective would be achieved through micro-credit institutions, community infrastructure and capacity-building schemes.

"We will strengthen the devolution process to make it more beneficial to people through bettering the administrative machinery," he said.

The government, he said, could not face these challenges alone and would need support of all sections of society. "We will take advice from this house and the people on all levels in all our programmes that we will chalk out for the country's good," he declared.

Earlier, Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain turned down a suggestion from treasury members to carry out the voting process by show of hands or by counting the members standing in their seats in support of Mr Aziz.

The speaker reminded the house that Schedule II clearly laid down the procedure of ascertainment as well as vote of confidence, both requiring secret ballot in favour or against. Only once, he pointed out, the method of show of hand was adopted when the Supreme Court had restored the National Assembly and reinstated the then prime minister.

The vote held on the pattern of ascertainment took about 30 minutes as the absence of opposition from the house had made it a smooth and quiet affair.

Many treasury members also made speeches welcoming the new prime minister and assuring him of their support.

Before the start of the assembly session, the ruling parliamentary group held a meeting in which the procedure for the vote of confidence was explained to members. The lengthy meeting delayed the NA session by one and a half hours as it started at 4.35pm instead of the scheduled 3pm.

Prime Minister takes oath

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was sworn-in on Saturday as the 23rd chief executive of the country.

President General Pervez Musharraf administered the oath at a ceremony at Aiwan-i-Sadr.-APP