18 October 2004	Monday	03 Ramazan 1425

ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: Pakistan has a rich and dynamic civil society which can play its part in the growth and progress of the country.

These views were expressed by members of the Development Committee of German Parliamentarians here at a reception organized in their honour by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF).

Members of the foundation and a large number of civil society members and human rights activists were present on the occasion.

Members of the visiting delegation were of the view that civil society members in Pakistan had a greater potential and they must play their due role in the development of their country which was facing a host of problems like poverty, illiteracy, absence of basic health facilities, acute shortage of civic amenities and human rights violations.

The resident representative of Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Peter Andreas Bochmann, gave a detailed briefing of the work of the foundation in Pakistan and said: "Our focus is to work with our Pakistani partners and facilitate, through capacity building programmes and publications, their work for the citizens of Pakistan."

The foundation, he said, had been working in Pakistan since the 1980s and its partners include Liberal Forum of Pakistan, Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, AGHS Legal Aid Cell, Fazaldad Human Rights Institute and Shehri CBE.

Mr Bochmann said the Friedrich Naumann Foundation was a German foundation working in more than 50 countries of the world on ideas of freedom and liberty. In almost all parts of the world, it worked with local partners. The delegation is visiting Pakistan from October 13 to 17.

The members of the delegation are MP Markus Loening of the FDP, MP Klaus Werner Jonas of the SPD, MP Sibylle Pfeiffer of the CDU/CSU, MP Siegfried Helias of CDU/CSU and Thomas Pfueger who is the committee's secretary.