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Published 09 Feb, 2009 12:00am

Defence committee to get Mumbai report today

MULTAN, Feb 8: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that the report of investigation into the Mumbai terror attacks will be presented to the cabinet’s Defence Coordination Committee at a meeting on Monday.

The prime minister, who was talking to journalists after addressing a gathering in Qasim Bela on Sunday, said the government would give its opinion after studying the report.

He said Pakistan enjoyed support of the international community and no effort to isolate it or getting it declared a terrorist state would succeed.

“Terrorism is a regional issue and Pakistan wants this issue resolved at the regional level,” the prime minister said.

About Monday’s visit of US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, Mr Gilani said all regional issues would be discussed with him.

Answering a question about the National Accountability Bureau, Mr Gilani said it had lost its credibility and the government had decided to abolish it in the light of the Charter of Democracy and set up a new accountability department.“We promise good governance and a system of fair accountability”. There would be across the board accountability and even the influential people would not be spared because the PPP believed in fair and transparent accountability, he added.

The prime minister said the government had abolished the Employment Task Force to empower elected representatives to provide jobs to youths through ministers on the basis of merit.

He said elected representatives had been asked to visit their constituencies to solve people’s problems and ministers had been asked to hold open courts in all provinces to listen to people’s grievances.

He said the government was determined to making parliament supreme.

He said the Benazir Income Support Programme was meant to help the poor and if somebody applied for the scheme today, he would start getting money from Oct 1, 2008.

The prime minister also announced construction of a girls’ high school and a hospital.Earlier, Mr Gilani inaugurated the Jinnah Auditorium built at cost of Rs75 million at the Bahauddin Zakariya University. He also attended the ninth convocation of the Bahauddin Zakariya University and awarded PhD degrees to 27 scholars and gold medals to 35 graduates. He also announced a grant of Rs378 million for the university and colleges of engineering and agriculture and Rs50 million for construction of the Gilani University Law College.

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