UN General Assembly
1996

and frustration that often manifest as random violence and terrorism. Despite this grinding poverty, the aspirations of the marginalized keep rising due to the communications revolution sweeping the world. The world needs to devise a system under which Governments adopting international standards of trade and human values get proportionate relief in their debt. Shrinking aid flows have forced countries such as Pakistan to borrow capital at commercial interest rates. Indeed, debt servicing now accounts for 47 per cent of our budget. The negative impact of such reverse transfers needs to be redressed. Similarly, it is time to renew and implement the pledge of the developed nations to devote at least 0.7 per cent of their gross national products for assistance to the developing countries. Even this target has now dwindled to a level of 0.3 per cent of the gross national product of the developed world. We in Pakistan, committed to the dream of our founding fathers, have chosen the path of a federal parliamentary democracy wedded to the concept of social equality. Under a democratic Government, Pakistan has