KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah on Monday hosted a dinner in honour of British Member Parliament, George Galloway at the CM House here.
Earlier, a meeting was held which was also attended by Speaker Sindh Assembly, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza, Provincial Minister for Education, Pir Mazharul Haq,
Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani, Agriculture Minister Ali Nawaz Shah, Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, Revenue Minister Jam Mehtab Khan Dahar, Archives Minister Engineer Rafique, Sindh Chief Secretary Raja Abbas and others.
The chief minister while welcoming the British Member Parliament spoke of the decades old deep friendly relations between Pakistan and UK.
He pointed out that it is first time in the history that the present elected democratic government is completing its constitutional tenure and that the forthcoming general elections would be held as per schedule.
Qaim said that Karachi was the economic and commercial hub of the country. He also thanked the government of Great Britain for its support for strengthening of democracy in Pakistan and said that it will flourish day by day.
British Member Parliament George Galloway said that democracy was essential for resolving problems in Pakistan. He also apprised the Sindh Chief Minister about his visit to Moenjodaro. Later the CM presented a shield of CM House and traditional gifts of Ajrak, Sindhi cap and Khais to British member parliament.
IGC MEETING: The Friends of International Growth Center (IGC) meeting was held at the Center for Executive Education, IBA Karachi.
An official of the institution said on Tuesday that the IGC is a research consortium set up by the London School of Economics and the Oxford University, striving to provide independent advice on economic growth to governments of developing countries.
They currently have active country programmes in nine countries across Africa and South Asia including Pakistan and support over 70 individual research projects on issues of governance, human capital, agriculture, infrastructure, trade, firm capability, state capacity, macroeconomics and political economy.
The IGC Pakistan programme was launched in 2009 and ha of the on-going research projects in the country.
These included projects on mapping urban Pakistan, understanding the role of remittances in our economy, using ICT to improve governance, and monetary policy in Pakistan.
The meeting also focused on the need for collaboration between different regional hubs of research within Pakistan.
Previously the meeting was held at LUMS and SBP. The meeting was attended by leading economists including economists from the SBP and private banks and prominent personalities from the academia including faculty members from LUMS, IBA and LSE.