Islamabad, Jan 8 : Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has directed officials of an income support programme to train 150,000 Pakistani youths in different trades and vocations and generate overseas jobs for them.

Zardari asked the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to accomplish the task in consultation with the ministries of overseas Pakistanis and foreign affairs, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

The president said the programme has attracted worldwide appreciation for its transparency, objectivity and efficiency and was reaching out to over seven million families in a short span of four years.

He told a gathering of 10,000 youths, equipped with vocational skills to help them make their own living, that their skills will help them become productive citizens.

Media reports say the BISP is currently the largest aid programme in Pakistan and has the government's third largest budgetary allocation. In the 2008-2009 fiscal year, around three million families -- or 15 percent of the population -- received cash transfers through BISP.(IANS)