MULTAN: Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) South Punjab Captain (Retired) Saqib Zafar said on Thursday that eradicating poverty was the basic aim of the south Punjab secretariat and it was emerging as a bigger challenge given the fact the poverty in the area was touching 42 percent on the graph.
Talking to a 14-member delegation of the 34th senior management course, Saqib Zafar said that all out efforts were in progress with a major thrust on good governance to treat and address all individuals’ problems on merit and bring modernity in every domain from arts to science education.
Spread over 99, 579 square kilometers, south Punjab has a large population with 23 percent of it living in cities and 58 percent in rural areas and mostly engaged in agriculture to earn livelihood, the ACS said.
He said that caretaker Chief Minister (CM) Punjab Mohsin Naqvi was taking special interest in upgrading basic life facilities in south Punjab with a major thrust on healthcare facilities.
He said dozens of mega projects wer
e under execution.
Saqib Zafar said that recommendations from international institutions were being implemented to eliminate poverty in the area.
He said that all out efforts were being made to increase literacy rate and monitoring by administrative secretaries was improving service delivery by different departments.
He said the south Punjab secretariat was actively engaged in efforts to enhance cotton production and other crops while Punjab’s first Anti-Rape Crisis Cell was set up in Multan.
Elaborating performance further, he said that they took the lead in holding boat riding contests and set up schools for transgenders. Schoolympics and hockey leagues were introduced at the school level to infuse healthy sportsman spirit among the youth.
He said, that south Punjab can play an important role in enhancing meat exports from Pakistan and added that projects were initiated in the livestock sector to make the area disease-free for cattle heads.
He said, that south Punjab possesses enormous tourism potenti
al and added that a plan has been prepared to conserve dozens of historical forts in Cholistan.
The officers from administrative, foreign, inland revenue, audit and accounts, and information groups presented a souvenir to ACS and received shields.
Secretary Services South Punjab engineer Amjad Shoaib Khan Tareen and an official Rubina Masud were also present.