March 21, 2008	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1429

NEW YORK, March 20: Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the new political leadership in Pakistan augurs well for Pakistan and urged the United States to support it to combat terrorism and to meet new challenges.

Addressing a large gathering of students and faculty at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, Mr Aziz allayed concerns over Pakistan’s nuclear programme telling the audience that their “fears” were unfounded since the nuclear assets were well protected and ensured peace in South Asia.

Mr Aziz also spoke about the global economic challenges which would impact Pakistan, like higher energy prices and increasing food prices.

The former prime minister stressed that the fundamentals were strong in Pakistan and would allow the new regime to meet the challenges head on.

Mr Aziz, who headed Citibank’s global banking sector before taking the job of Pakistans finance minister, said that reforms undertaken by the government in the last eight years, like privatisation, and the consumer friendly tax laws, had helped Pakistans private sector prosper.

Speaking about the global financial crisis looming over the horizon, Mr Aziz said that the role of regulators had to be clearly defined and governments had to be nimble to pre-empt and change the dysfunctional financial system in which presently was absence of liquidity and credit.