Islamabad, April 8
In sharp contrast to the raking up of Indo-Pak issue at the SAARC fora in Kathmandu and later here, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today refrained from raising bilateral issues at the group’s ministerial meeting, urging the member countries to launch a war against poverty. Chief Interlocutor on Kashmir and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission K.C. Pant told the two-day SAARC Finance and Planning Ministers’ Conference on Poverty Alleviation that India would do whatever it can within its means to fight poverty.
“India stands fully committed and is ready and willing to do whatever it can within its limited means” to reduce poverty,” Mr Pant said.
After delivering a speech outlining his vision on development and poverty eradication in the South Asian region, General Musharraf quietly settled down for a little chat over tea with Mr Pant and other SAARC ministers to discuss the issues of mutual interest.
Earlier, soon after his arrival at the venue, General Musharraf shook hands with Mr Pant and other delegates attending the meeting.
Indian officials later clarified that there was no one-to-one meeting between General Musharraf and Mr Pant nor they discussed any bilateral issues. Mr Pant is heading a four-member official delegation at the meeting.
Belying all speculation that he might rake up Indo-Pak issues ignoring the SAARC charter, General Musharraf devoted most of his inaugural speech on the three-tier concept of regional development to effectively deal with grinding poverty of the region.
General Musharraf said Pakistan would oppose any disruption to the SAARC process and that Islamabad firmly stood for its continuity.
General Musharraf, who was formally scheduled to launch his poll campaign tomorrow from Lahore for the national referendum to be held next month, spoke strongly in favour of launching a regional initiative against corruption in high places, which he termed as “loot and money laundering.”
General Musharraf also spoke of dilemma faced by the developing countries over whether to invest in human resources or fast-track development.
Earlier, Pakistan Finance Minister Shoukat Aziz said one fifth of the world’s population lived in the South Asian region, where 46 per cent of the population was illiterate.
“In the rapidly changing global trading environment, the current state of the intra-SAARC trade is highly disappointing,” he said.
PTI
