ISLAMABAD, Sept 14: President Gen Pervez Musharraf appealed on Sunday to all Pakistanis living in Pakistan or abroad to donate generously to the fund set up for the health care and education of poor masses in Pakistan.

Addressing the Fundraising Telethon, organized by the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) at the Convention Centre, he said the government had contributed Rs2 billion to the fund.

Appreciating the donations of overseas Pakistanis, he said many of them had contributed $100,000 each to the fund set up by the NCHD.

“I am grateful to the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) which contributed $2 million to this fund,” he further said.

The president said it was a totally transparent fund and was headed by a board of directors of people of national stature.He was confident that the fund would be utilized in a best possible manner.

About the transparency of the fund, he said: “Anyone can monitor this fund on the internet and that is the biggest thing which contributes to its transparency.”

President Musharraf said it was a huge task which had been undertaken to take it to all the 100 districts of the country and then to each village.

Terming it a mammoth task, he said: “When we are talking of universalizing of education, may be we are talking of opening schools in every village where a local girl or boy of that village teaches the children of that village in a school donated by that village itself.”

The president said the NCHD had achieved a lot as it had reached 31 districts besides mobilizing 35,000 volunteers in support of education and health with a special emphasis on the education of women and girls.—APP