KARACHI, Pakistan, Dec 22, Reuter: Students ransacked part of the Pakistan American cultural center on Thursday just before Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto drove into Karachi in Triumph and said she wanted to attract foreign investment.
Witnesses said scores of students burnt records and furniture at the center to protest at what they called high tuition fees. U.S Consular officials were not available for immediate comment.
About 10,000 activists of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s party pushed aside security barriers at Karachi airport and swarmed onto the tarmac when her plane arrived from Islamabad.
After her motorcade was showered with rose petals on the 20km (12 mile) drive to the city center, Bhutto told a news conference Pakistan was cutting bureaucracy to attract foreign investment.
“Pakistan will be receiving tremendous amount of aid and assistance for industrialization. We will welcome foreign investment and technology too,” she said.
The country faced three big problems — unemployment, health care and illiteracy.
“The unemployment problem is a curse,” said Bhutto who took office on December 2. “We want to solve the problem but we don’t have the money. We have inherited an empty exchequer. The country was almost mortgaged before we took over.”
She said she would have talks with Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who was coming to Pakistan to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 30, 1988
