ISLAMABAD, May 10: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has asked the officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Planning Commission to change the whole development strategy to ensure effective monitoring of the development projects.

Official sources said here on Friday that on the instruction of the President and the Chief Executive, for the first time, the quarterly monitoring report of PSDP projects will be prepared.

Two quarterly monitoring reports of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) projects have just been handed over to the Chief Executive Secretariat by the Planning Commission. The 3rd quarterly report will be presented to the President on May 24 for which a high level meeting of the economic ministries has been convened.

The Chief of the Staff (COS) of the President held a meeting here on Thursday with secretaries of finance, commerce, food and agriculture, petroleum and natural resources, water and power and communications and discussed with them the pace of development projects in all the provinces as well as in Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas.

The sources said that the meeting reviewed the progress on 68 development projects and issued instructions to various federal and provincial authorities to complete them in time as has been directed by the President. The meeting was told that whatever development commitments had been made by the President during his referendum campaign will be honoured, and that he (president) did not want to be remembered by the people as the one who like others made only tall claims but did not do any thing concrete.

The meeting directed that the rehabilitation of Quetta-Zhob Road should be commenced from both ends and the National Highway Authority (NHA) was asked to ensure compliance. It was also informed to the meeting that the Lora Lai-DG Khan road will be improved by the NHA.

The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) was asked to step up purchase of cotton and inform about the progress so far made, including plans for the rest of the production year.

The progress on the construction of Jacobabad bye-pass by NHA was also discussed and officials concerned were asked to speed up the work. It was also decided that dualisation of Sukkur- Jacobabad Road will be undertaken by the NHA. Railways Division was asked to submit plans for improvement of train services between Mirpur Khas and Hyderabad.

The other issues discussed include: 30,000 tons of wheat be provided free for drought affected areas in Balochistan for which army will ensure fair distribution; sui gas to be provided to Khaniwal, Lodhran and Vehari; Border trade with Iran to be formalised immediately by joint action of the ministries of finance and commerce and the government of Balochistan for which a presentation should also be made to the President; DG Khan-Rajanpur section of Indus Highway must be completed as early as possible and NHA to intimate progress; Temporary employees of the ministry of communications at Gawadar, as committed by the President during his visit to Gawadar, must be made permanent; federal and provincial law ministries to study and formalise the concept of Chambers for Lawyers in Courts; ministry of foreign affairs to arrange an immediate visit of Chairman Wapda to Iran to negotiate supply of electricity by both the countries in border areas; preference to be given to women for grant of loans by Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), Micro Finance, ADBP and Zakat; ministry of agriculture to ensure provision of correct support price of rice to farmers in Sindh; and Fauji Foundation, Army Welfare Trust and Corporate and Industrial Restructuring Corporation (CIRC) to assess the revival of Harnai Woolen Mills and submit report to the President by June 30 for information.