President for satellite imagery to plan strategic projects

ISLAMABAD:President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday asked the government to utilize satellite imagery to monitor and plan strategic projects in all sectors of economy.The President during a briefing on the status of implementation of Satellite Imaging project here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr said it would help accelerate the pace of development and ensure greater transparency.The President said use of the latest technology for monitoring and evaluation would help keep a check on progress of developmental projects and also counter corrupt practices because of greater transparency.The briefing given by Senator Sughra Imam and was also attended by Secretary General to the President M. Salman Faruqui, Secretary to the President Malik Asif Hayat, Secretary Planning Commission Ashraf M Hayat, Secretary Statistics Asif Bajwa, Member Planning Commission Lt Gen® Shahid Niaz, Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar, Surveyor General of Pakistan Maj Gen Munawar Ahmaed Solehria, Member SUPARCO Imran Iqbal, Census Commissioner Khizar Hayat Khan and other senior government officials.
The meeting also reviewed the progress on implementation of decisions taken in previous meetings that include launching of spatial Database for Pakistan, digitalization of  the storage of land revenue maps, survey of Districts Larkana, Shaheed Benazirabad and Karachi, pilot project undertaken for the socio-economic and demographic mapping of selected areas in district  Jhelum and calculation of man- hours for the exercise done in District Jhelum to work out requirement for other districts.The President advised the government departments including Planning Commission, Geological Survey of Pakistan and SUPARCO to pool resources and work in close coordination to develop and implement an effective satellite monitoring system -App