Tailored poverty - world's longest penury banner in Pakistan

from The Post

Lahore: More than 1.2 millions people of Pakistan have put their signatures on the world longest banner on poverty, said to be 10 km in length, which is going to be unfurled in Bahawalpur on 17th, October 2007.

"Bas Bohat ho Chuka," an umbrella organization of civil society activists has tailored this 10 km banner with the help of Insan Foundation Pakistan.

On 16th October people around the world will gather on public spots, in schools, temples and at workplaces to register their complaint against the gravest evil that haunts the world in which 50,000 people die daily from preventable causes and more than a billion people subsist in abject poverty.

Last year, 23.5 million people stood up on this day to demand an end to poverty, setting a Guinness world record in the process.

The global call is also focusing on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). More than 184 world leaders signed a commitment to do everything in their power to end poverty and extreme hunger by agreeing to achieve these Goals by the year 2015.

This year marks the halfway point to this deadline and still almost a billion people live on less than a dollar a day.

Irfan mufti, GCAP International campaign manager said that investing for empowerment of the poor was much more important than spending for military empowerment.

Mahar safdar Ali GCAP /MDGs, Campaign Coordinator Pakistan Farooq Ahmed Khan, Provincial Coordinator Ali Akbar and Syeda Ghulam Fatima Member GCAP Coalition Pakistan are working to highlight the campaign's goals in Pakistan.

They disclosed the above mentioned figures in during a press conference here on Monday. The campaign has registered a 2.3 million people in 2006. GCAP Pakistan members hail from civil society organizations, NGOs, political groups and academic institutions. This year the target is to mobilise 3 million people all over the country against capitalist exploitation.