ISLAMABAD (The NEWS, March 14th, 2008) Caretaker Minister for Information and Broadcasting Nisar A Memon Thursday said President Pervez Musharraf had fulfilled all his promises made to the people.

Talking to a Chinese media delegation, he said Pakistan has a history of "broken promises" because elected government in 1990s had backed out of their most of the promises despite their tall claims.

"It is quite interesting that a military leader had brought democracy back to this country where civilian autocratic rulers did nothing to strengthen democratic institutions", he said.

Memon said the president had consolidated political institutions and introduced true democracy through consistent and effective efforts at all political fronts.

He said Musharraf has transferred the military command and now he is an elected civilian president who did a lot to make Pakistan a developed country.

He said the elected assemblies had completed their constitutional term for the first time that showed the firm commitment of the president towards strengthening democracy.

Memon said the local government system helped transfer power to the grassroots level and now people had governments down at the union council level.

Criticizing the role of some elements, he said the collaborators of anti-Pakistan forces do not want to see the country embark on the road towards progress and prosperity, so they are trying to destabilize the country.

He said there were talks that foreign forces would conduct military operations on our soil but we categorically said that no foreign forces would ever be allowed to operate in our territory. The minister informed the Chinese delegation that 50 local and 30 foreign television channels and 106 radio channels are now operating freely after the government gave them full freedom to media in the country. Lauding the progress achieved by China in all spheres of life, he said this great country progressed to the extent that its foreign reserves, trade and oil consumption is just next to the United States.-APP