Pakistan has achieved economic sovereignty and is working on a comprehensive plan to transfer the benefits of this to the common man, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said.

Once termed a failed-state and in the lowest tier of the International Monetary Fund's poverty reduction programme, Pakistan has gone into the international capital market, Aziz said while speaking at the National Defence College.

"We had to live from tranche to tranche five years back but now we have become the first country in IMF's history to move from Poverty Reduction Growth Facility into the international capital market," The News Tuesday quoted him as saying.

"Pakistan will still seek money for its mega development projects like dams, but will not compromise its sovereignty," Aziz added.

The challenge now before the government, according to the prime minister, was to transfer the advantages of the country's financial health to the common man.

Because of the government's dynamic growth-oriented policies, he said the growth rate is likely to go up from the projected 6.4 percent.

The prime minister said wide ranging structural reforms, prudent macroeconomic policies, financial discipline, and consistency and continuity of policies had transformed Pakistan into a stable and vibrant economy.

According to him, Pakistan has now entered the phase of second-generation reforms and the stage is set for economic growth to accelerate to 7 to 8 per cent per annum over the next three to four years, with the private sector playing the leading role.

He said the government, due to prudent economic management, was able to absorb the impact of rising prices of petroleum, adding that in India, the price of petrol was 30 per cent higher than in Pakistan.

Speaking about Pakistan's nuclear and missile programme, Aziz said: "We will not be aggressive against anyone, but will not let any one be aggressive with us."

--Indo-Asian News Service