Pakistani man who tried to sell children gets job

KARACHI, Feb 15 (Reuters) A desperately poor Pakistani man who offered to sell his three children has been given a job on the orders of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

The man, Shaukat Ali, was briefly detained by police in the town of Mian Channu in Punjab province this week after he sat on a street with his three boys, aged 10 and younger, beneath a banner reading: ''Children for sale''.

His plight was picked up by the media and noticed in high places.

''The prime minister's secretary contacted me through the police and I am being given a government job in Mian Channu ...

as a guard,'' Ali told Reuters by telephone today.

Ali, an unemployed baker, said he had offered to sell his children in a fit of desperation and anger after being able to feed them nothing but watery milk for two days.

''Their cries caused me great pain,'' he said.

''I had no price in my mind but just thought they would get something to eat,'' said Ali, whose wife died in child birth two years ago.

Poverty is a serious problem for many in the country of 160 million people even though economic growth has been around 6-7 percent in recent years.

Malik Ejaz, a senior police official, confirmed that the prime minister had ordered that Ali be given a job and had also ordered that his children got proper schooling.

REUTERS SP RN1430