KARACHI, Aug 22: The country needs to embark on restructuring social relations and economic policy priorities with a view to half poverty by 2015 in order to meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

This was maintained by the speakers at a panel discussion on poverty reduction at Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST), says a statement of the institution on Monday.

It said that the panelists including V.A. Jafarey, Ms Qudsia Kadri, Haris Gazdar, Dr Asad Sayeed and Dr Kaiser Bengali.

The interactive discussions brought forth several questions from the audience relating to the sustainability of growth, role of education in sustained growth, and the role of democracy in poverty reduction.

V.A. Jafarey, who had served as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Governor of the State Bank, and a former adviser on finance and economic affairs to the prime minister, said that there was a need to study as to which kind of policies and plans cause the trickle down effect and restructure economic planning accordingly.—APP