MULTAN, March 16: The European Commission will continue its support to the social sector in Pakistan, specially in the field of primary health care and education in the rural areas.

This was pledged by the EC Ambassador to Pakistan, Mr Kurt Juul, here on Friday. He was inspecting an EC-funded mother and child health care centre at nearby Nawabpur village.

The centre was established two years ago at the cost of Rs0.66 million. The EC provided an assistance of Rs0.347 million through the Trust for Voluntary Organization (TVO) under latter’s Rural Social Development Programme (RSDP). Rest of the funds were generated by DAIS development organization and people of the village having a population of 25,000.

Speaking on the occasion with the help of a translator, Mr Kurt expressed satisfaction over the performance of the centre. “It makes me happy to see a group of dedicated volunteers working in the backward areas.”

He said the EC would provide assistance in other areas on the pattern of Nawabpur project. He underlined the need of community participation to get resolved problems at their own.

TVO’s regional officer Azizur Rahman said that the Nawabpur project was also creating awareness on health issues. He said that the centre was providing health care to 5,000 women, 4,000 children and aged people of the area.

It was learnt that another three EC-funded projects of primary health care were also working in different parts of Multan.

The EC ambassador also visited the centre in Mumtazabad Colony of Multan city, being run by NGO Omeedgah.

CONTROL ROOM: The Multan district government has set up a control room and crisis management centre to meet any eventuality during Ashura.

The control room has been set up at the office of district coordination officer (DCO). The district officer (revenue), Qazi Ishfaq Qureshi, will be the in charge.

RECEPTION: The Multan directorate of public relations organized a farewell reception on Saturday in the honour of Syed Azhar Imam Zaidi.

Mr Zaidi served the department for 33 years and was director in Multan at the time of his retirement. Officers and staff of the public relations offices from various districts of south Punjab attended the reception.

The participants also lauded the services rendered by superintendent Sabihul Islam and dispatcher Muhammad Ramazan who retired recently.

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