The Speaker of the State Assembly of New Zealand Robertson called on the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi here on Monday. According to an official, Pakistan Muslim League (PML) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and PML Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Sayed were also present on the occasion.
The Chief Minister said the present government had evolved a new strategy to provide equal opportunities of development for the women.
"Vocational institutes have been set up in various districts of the province for economic rehabilitation of the women. Additional resources were provided to strengthen the social welfare sector, while special attention was being paid to imparting education to the women because educated women could play important role in bringing social change", he added.
According to him, presence of children in schools had been ensured due to revolutionary steps initiated by the government in the educational sector. The social development process could be accelerated and unemployment and poverty be reduced with the promotion of education.
The government was acting upon a comprehensive policy regarding health sector and Punjab Health sector reforms programme had been launched for the provision of health facilities to the people.
Free of cost medicines and modern health facilities were being provided to the patients under a new system in the emergency wards of 11 teaching hospitals of the province. An emergency ambulance service project had already been started in Lahore and the service would be extended very soon to other cities.
The Speaker State Assembly New Zealand said that exchange of parliamentary delegations between Pakistan and New Zealand would help in understanding each other's parliamentary system. There were vast opportunities of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, he added.