ISLAMABAD, June 18: The government on Friday conceded before the National Assembly that it had failed to provide employment opportunities to thousands of persons holding postgraduate degrees.

In reply to a question by Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, the minister for labour, manpower and overseas Pakistanis told the House that based on the Labour Force Survey 2001-02 and the available population estimates, "approximately 33,064 youths holding master degrees, are unemployed in the country."

Earlier, Economic Survey 2003-04 released by the government on June 10 showed that unemployment had increased in the country during the last four years in both the urban and rural areas.

According to the Survey, unemployment rate has increased from 5.89 per cent in 1999 to 8.27 per cent in 2004. The figures released by the government show that unemployment in urban areas increased from less than a million people in 1999 to some 1.44 million.

Corresponding figures for the rural areas show that another 88 hundred thousand persons were added to the unemployed labour force since 1999. In response to another question by MNA Mrs Inayat Begum, the National Assembly was informed that thousands of rupees were spent on the maintenance and fuel expenses for official vehicles used for protocol and general duties in the office of the minister and secretary for science and technology.

The answers submitted by the interior minister to the National Assembly showed that the average monthly expenditure of Mr Faisal Saleh Hayat's vehicle is more than Rs9,000 per month.

The average monthly expenditure on the vehicle of the parliamentary secretary for interior was much more than the minister's vehicle. The National Assembly was informed that average expenditure incurred by Toyota Corolla IDP-8000 GLI 1300 CC 2003 Model car of Sanaullah Khan, the parliamentary secretary for interior, stood at almost Rs15,000 per month.

The minister for foreign affairs, Khurshid Kasuri, informed the National Assembly that an amount of Rs32,702 was spent for maintenance of his 2003 model Honda Civic VTI 1.6 L 1600 CC car bearing registration number IDM 502, which also consumed 1870 litres of POL.

The minister for defence, Rao Sikander Iqbal, incurred an expenditure of Rs125,482 on account of maintenance of his official car and consumption of 3034 litres of petrol during the past one year.