October 18, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 5, 1428

BAHAWALPUR, Oct 17: The International Day of Eradication of Poverty was observed with unfurling of a 10-kilometre-long banner here on Wednesday.

The unfurling took over two hours as hundreds of schoolchildren queued up on road connecting Bahawalpur and Baghdadul Jadid railway stations to perform the task.

The observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty can be traced back to Oct 17, 1987, when over 100,000 people gathered at the Trocadéro in Paris, where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, to honour the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger.

The United Nations General Assembly in resolution 47/196 of Dec 22, 1992, declared Oct 17 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Farooq Ahmad Khan, a coordinator of the ceremony, said 135 civil societies provided 3,000 banners signed by over 1.2 million people from across the country and the students interlinked all these pieces of cloth to form the 10-km banner.

The banners were inscribed with slogans disseminating messages to eradicate poverty and hunger, promote universal primary education for all, give equal opportunities to men and women, launch effective campaign against AIDS, malaria and other diseases and to end environmental pollution and degradation.

The mega event also involved passers-by, including a large number of women and children, besides activists belonging to various NGOs.

Performances by Jhoomar parties and melodious tunes played by bands at various places on the 10-km road between the two railway stations added to the beauty of the event. The concluding ceremony took place at Fawara Chowk.

CARAVAN: Another batch of Pakistan People’s Party workers led by Zaka Ashraf Chaudhrty, former adviser to the Sindh chief minister, left for Karachi to accord welcome to PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto on her arrival on Thursday (today).