‘White revolution’ on its way: Aziz

* Prime minister promises new development projects
* Says decision on a big dam soon

KARACHI: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Friday Pakistan was on the track to a ‘white revolution’ under which new development schemes in education, health and agriculture would be launched.

White Revolution was a large-scale reform programme introduced by the Shah of Iran in 1963.

The prime minister said that a decision to build a new dam would be made soon. Inaugurating the second plant for Universal Tractors at the Karachi Port Trust, the prime minister said that Pakistan lacked a big dam due to differences among provinces. “Had we built either the Kalabagh or Bhasha dam we could have saved millions of cusecs of water,” he added.

Mr Aziz said the government was trying to remove the provinces’ reservations on the subject. He announced that the government was introducing new reforms in agriculture as it was the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and while Pakistan’s automobile sector was growing rapidly, new factories are being set up and foreign investment was coming in at a faster pace.

“The government considered bringing about a dairy revolution in Pakistan when President Pervez Musharraf visited New Zealand and inspected the country’s dairy sector,” he said.

The prime minister said emphasis had been laid on the provision of electricity to the remote areas of the country under Khushhal Pakistan Programme. Prime Minister Aziz said the government was committed to electrifying every village in Pakistan by 2007, adding that water filtration plants were being set up in every union council and village. He said the government was not privatising major entities for the sake of business but wanted to run them efficiently.

He said the government had decided to privatise Pakistan Steel Mills and other entities after the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited. He said Pakistan had three ports and the government was also planning to privatise some sections of these ports to improve their performance. online

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