ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Saturday underlined the need for facilitating the common man’s access to resources by expanding economic opportunities.

During presentations made by the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (Ppaf), he said financial assistance should be provided to poor segments of society to eradicate poverty from the country.

The president said the government had brought down the poverty ratio from 34 per cent to 24 per cent, adding that efforts should be made for more reduction of poverty in coming years.

He said people’s living standard was being improved through creation of jobs in cities and development of agriculture sector in rural areas.

He asked Ppaf to extend its activities to remote areas, particularly Balochistan. He said focus should be on provision of safe drinking water to people and canal water for agriculture.

The president appreciated Ppaf for launching projects in 2,000 villages.

The meeting was informed that Ppaf had joined the government efforts in reconstruction of quake-hit areas and built 115,000 houses and rehabilitated 1,000 infrastructure projects.—Online