KARACHI, Oct 6: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that 60,000 youths are being trained in different trades under the Pakistan People’s Party’s youth development programme named after Benazir Bhutto, adding that recruitment against 50,000 vacancies would start in the next few weeks.

Mr Shah, speaking at a meeting of the party’s provincial executive committees for Larkana, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad divisions, said that the recruitment would be made strictly on a merit basis.

The meeting, also attended by PPP MNAs and MPAs from Sindh and the district leadership, discussed political situation and regional issues.

The chief minister told the meeting that his government had taken measures for the implementation of the party’s programme of “Roti, Kapra and Makan”.

Besides the youth development programme, the government was also working on several projects to provide shelter to the homeless under the People’s Housing Scheme, he said.

“We are making our best efforts to provide shelter to the shelterless within their present localities,” Mr Shah said, adding that houses for those homeless people living in coastal areas were being built under the UNDP in Thatta, Badin and Karachi.

“On the order of President Asif Ali Zardari, each Hari woman will be provided a 25-acre piece of agricultural land to ensure a source of income to peasants without land,” he said.