KARACHI, Aug 17: Assistant Secretary-General United Nations Development Programme Dr Hafiz Pasha has said that Pakistan's image abroad was not good and it needed to be changed through a full-fledged democracy in the country.

He was of the view that the United States did not trust Pakistan's leadership and believed that it was playing with both sides and was involved in nuclear proliferation.

Talking to members of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry here on Tuesday, Mr Pasha said that India was more advanced than Pakistan in computer technology and software development, but its technology from Russia was outdated while Pakistanis were endowed with better entrepreneur ship and they surmounted problems by working hard in this sector.

On poverty alleviation, he said that the UN secretary-general believed that the private sector business community could banish poverty from the world. According to an FPCCI press release, Mr Pasha called upon FPCCI President Riaz Ahmed Tata to identify three or four projects to be funded by the United Nations for the alleviation of poverty from Pakistan and added the FPCCI had the ability to mobilize the private sector in this task.

Dr Hafiz Pasha, who has also served as Finance Minister of Pakistan, expressed surprise over the reduction in duty drawback rates and said the decision was taken at a time when the private sector needed more government support for the promotion of exports. He believed that Pakistan's textile sector could meet the challenges of the abolition of quota system provided the government gave its full support.