ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that concrete steps should be taken for poverty reduction through private-public partnership and NGOs at union council level and all the recommendations of the concerned committees in this regard will be forwarded to the government for implementation.

The President welcomed the participants of the meeting and said that this was the first interactive meeting in the presidency which was also attended by civil society organizations along with the government departments to benefit from the input of civil society organizations.

He made these remarks during a presentation by Task Force of Poverty Reduction Social Sectors on Women empowerment at Aiwan-e-Sadr Islamabad.

The meeting was informed that emergency relief camp of BISP for FATA displaced families has already been launched. Some camps will be setup in Balochistan for earthquake affectees in the first week of January. BISP is holding national survey through development partners to collect accurate data of deserving families for permanent income support.

The meeting was attended by Sherry Rehman, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Shaukat Tarin, Advisor to Prime Minister for Finance, Farzana Raja, Chairperson Benazir Income Support Program and other concerned officials.