Councillor Ahmed welcomes £480 million Government support for Pakistan

Councillor Imtiaz Ahmed

The Labour Councillor for Milkstone and Deeplish, Councillor Imtiaz Ahmed, has welcomed the Government’s new Country Assistance Plan for Pakistan, which will see £480 million provided to Pakistan over the next three years.

Responding to the recent announcement by the Minister for International Development, Douglas Alexander MP, which will see funding for the Government’s Pakistan programme doubled, Councillor Ahmed said this money was vital to help address Pakistan’s huge poverty challenge.

“This development funding shows that our Labour Government is serious about meeting the Millennium Development Goals,” he said. At the moment one in ten children in Pakistan die before their fifth birthday; half of the adult population are unable to read or write; two out of five children are malnourished and only half attend primary school.

“I was delighted when our Government signed a historic ten-year UK/Pakistan Development Partnership Arrangement in 2006,” he added. “This Partnership Arrangement sets out their on-going joint commitment to work with the Government of Pakistan to tackle poverty and exclusion and improve the lives of nearly 40 million poor people in Pakistan.”

Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Simon Danczuk, added that many people with Pakistani heritage in Rochdale would be proud to see the impact being made by Labour’s commitment to Pakistan.

“In recent years,” he explained, “Government aid has: raised the incomes of 300,000 poor women by over 50 per cent; provided clean drinking water and sanitation to over 1.1 million people in the north west of Pakistan; and supported the health sector and government systems contributing to 200,000 fewer child deaths, 800,000 fewer malnourished children and the prevention of 2.4 million cases of TB.”

"Following a recent visit to Pakistan, the Minister for International Development, Douglas Alexander MP, said that the Government’s new assistance plan would mean that:

• 5 million more children will be able to attend primary school; 500,000 young people will benefit from technical and vocational education 
• The lives of 350,000 more children and 30,000 pregnant women will be saved; 2.5 million fewer children will be malnourished; 8 million cases of TB will be prevented 
• 30 million people will be reached by our work with civil society to strengthen awareness of rights, hold government to account and improve services for the poor

"Pakistan is a country that has shown real development progress in recent years, but still faces significant challenges,” he explained. “This is why our Labour Government is committed to working with the Government and people of Pakistan to address poverty."