KARACHI, Feb 3: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday that Karachi was being developed as 'a modern cosmopolitan city' with the contribution of all stake-holders and execution of mega projects.

"We are determined to develop Karachi, which is commercial hub as well as an important city. The government has approved most-modern mass transit magnetic one-track system from Sohrab Goth to Keamari in Karachi to be operational in 18 months.

Karachi Circular Railway will be reactivated in a week. Both these projects will help solve transport problems of the city," he said. He said he would soon perform the ground breaking of one of world's tallest buildings in Karachi.

President Musharraf was speaking at the ground breaking ceremony of the Rs655 million Hub School of Excellence of the Ahmed E.H. Jaffer Foundation at Deh Loharko Lung on the Hub dam road.

Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Corps Commander Lt-Gen Syed Athar Ali and Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro were present on the occasion.

The president said the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, which was earlier losing Rs1 billion a month, was now in the process of recovery. Its debt of Rs20 billion had been reduced to single figure and it would soon go into profit, he said. Its privatization would help improve service, he said.

The President also spoke about the 5,500 feet hill station being developed at Gorakh in Dadu district for tourists. Likewise, he said, the government was developing tourist resorts in Gilgit, Skardu, Kaghan and Swat in the north. He asked people to visit those areas so that foreigners were also attracted.

President Musharraf said that with the construction of coastal highway from Karachi to Gwadar, travel time had been reduced to seven hours, and between Karachi and Ormara to three hours. Pasni in Balochistan could be developed as a recreation resort, he said.

He said the government was focussing on human resource development, which was key to all-round economic prosperity. The government had adopted a holistic approach and was following a strategy to improve the literacy rate, he said.

He said the government had made a record increase in development grant for higher education to Rs9.1 billion this year and had also enhanced the non-development grant.

"In spite of opposition, the government would continue to implement reforms in overall educational system in the larger national interest. There is need for a technical school in each district of the country oriented towards imparting required skills," he said.

The president said the private sector was playing an active part in imparting quality education in the country. He asked the Hub school management to give scholarship to poor students and relax the merit criterion for them.

He highlighted the role of private sector in the promotion of education and announced an initial sum of Rs5 million for the school. Stressing the significance of technical schools, he said the government's target was to have one technical school in each district in the initial stage and then take them to the tehsil level.

He said madressahs had about one million students on their rolls. Those institutions should be improved and brought to the mainstream, he said. He said students of religious schools should be taught more subjects and allowed to appear in board examinations so that they could venture into various fields.

Earlier, Abdul Kader Jaffer, president of the Ahmed E.H. Jaffer Foundation, said the Hub school, to be run on non-profit basis, would maintain and surpass the standard of educational excellence in Pakistan. By the year 2007 it will offer comprehensive boarding school education from class seven to A Levels. By 2010, a girls' boarding school will be set up. -APP/PPI