ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday said the government was determined to improve the level of social services, enabling the people of Pakistan to get better healthcare, education and social services.

Mr Aziz chaired a meeting to review the programmes undertaken by the government and the non-government organisations (NGOs) in the field of health and education.

The meeting discussed steps to improve coordination of activities in these fields for better organisation, avoidance of duplication and specific utilisation of funds to create maximum impact on the life of people, spokesman for the finance ministry said.

Mr Aziz said that steps will be taken to improve coordination among the Planning Commission, the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD), the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) and the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) to achieve a meaningful progress.

"This will be done at the level of strategic planning as well as at implementation stage at grass-roots level among various organisations, provinces and the federal government," the finance minister said.

He said the monitoring mechanism will also be improved and asked the organisations engaged in the field to increase their coverage area and focus on improvement of services being provided.

He also asked the NRSP, the PPAF, the NCHD and the Khushali Bank to submit their reports and action plans within 10 days, recommending the exact steps to be taken to improve coordination in social sector as well as for impact analysis.

These reports and action plans will be discussed in the next meeting to evolve a mechanism for better coordination and impact analysis of the programmes undertaken in social sector, the finance ministry spokesman said.

The meeting was attended by Dr Akram Sheikh, deputy chairman, Planning Commission; Jehangir Tareen, adviser to the Punjab chief minister; Dr Nasim Ashraf, chairman NCHD; Ghalib Nishtar, president Khushali Bank; Shoaib Sultan, chairman NRSP; Kamal Hayat, president PPAF; and other senior officials.

Chairmen of NCHD, NRSP and the Khushali Bank president also briefed the meeting on the programmes and activities being undertaken by their respective organisations.