ISLAMABAD, Sept 27: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Monday said government was working on plans to provide relief to the masses by generating economic activity and creating employment.

The prime minister vowed that his government would do its best to come up to the expectations of the nation by focussing energies on issues of national importance. In a PTV programme, "Roo Baroo", on Monday he said, the key economic indicators had shown improvement.

He however said he was "not entirely satisfied" adding "we still have a long way to go." He said better targeting and monitoring of projects will improve results. He said there was brisk economic activity in all sectors in the country as was evident by the expansion programme undertaken by a number of industrial units.

He said the government will rid itself of the IMF by year's end. "We will continue to get loans for development, it will not be in desperation, but will be in a planned manner," he said.

Mr Aziz challenged when asked about the increasing trend of prices of everyday commodities and utility bills saying the government has frozen prices of petroleum products sold in the country since May.

He said the prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) have been slashed by 18 per cent while there has been no increase in the utility bills of those on subsistence. The government, he said, has directed release of 200,000 tonnes of sugar to keep its prices stable before the Ramazan.

Mr Aziz called for adopting a positive approach towards such issues. He said the government was taking all measures to provide relief to the masses and to keep the prices down.

He, however, pointed that the situation of the farmers having 12 and a half acres of land or less was not that encouraging. He said these were the challenges government was trying to meet.

Mr Aziz identified lack of clean drinking water, poor sanitation and high population growth rate as the problem areas, which will be tackled by his government. He said there was a wide gulf between the available trained manpower and the demand and the government would launch a special programme to give vocational training to the people across the country.

The PM replying to a question said the government was committed to provide speedy justice to the people. He, however, also called for addressing the root causes leading to litigation.

He said majority of the cases in the courts dealt with issues of property and need to be cleared to ease the problems of the people. He regretted that despite improvement in the physical infrastructure the people still lack excess to quick and speedy justice.

He said the superior courts have accelerated the pace of processing and hoped it would help clear the backlog. When asked about the exorbitant increase in the prices of property, particularly in Islamabad, the Prime Minister said he has directed the interior minister and the chairman Capital Development Authority to open up new sectors at the earliest.

He said with new land available for residential sectors, the prices of property would stabilize. He said government wanted to provide a house to every person and special zones would be set up to cater to the needs of low-income groups.

He attributed the price hike to liquidity in the market and said people were earning good money which was trickling down to all sectors. The construction of new houses will help around 40 affiliated industries and generate employment for a large number of people. -APP