October 20, 2007	Saturday	Shawwal 7, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 19: The British minister of state for foreign affairs and the Commonwealth, Lord Malloch-Brown on Friday observed that civic education had the answers to community problems.

Speaking at the conclusion of a two-day Teachers’ Training Workshop —Project Citizen Pakistan— arranged by the Centre for Civic Education Pakistan (CCEP), he praised the project’s concept that links education with finding solutions to the community’s problems by involving school children.

He said teachers were critical to a country and its future because they trained the future generations to participate and contribute in community life.

“There is a direct connection between government’s success and (the) success of the people,” Lord Malloch-Brown remarked, according to a news release.

He said active citizens could hold local government officials accountable. “People like you are in (a) position to influence the community and ensure that government responds to problems of the people,” he told the teachers.

The British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Robert Brinkley, and Laura Davis of the high commission accompanied the minister.

Lord Malloch-Brown, a key architect of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (UN-MDGs), said they were always mindful that these goals would be linked to democracy while framing the MDGs.

Zafarullah Khan, executive director of the CCEP, briefed the guests on the project. He said that teachers’ training in six districts had been completed where students of selected schools had started work on the project.

He expressed the hope that the project would equip them with knowledge and skills to increase their ability to influence public policy, through peaceful and democratic means. “This will promote the concepts of constitutionalism and rule of law in Pakistan,” he added.