NEW YORK -- President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq appealed Friday to a black tie gathering of American business leaders for U.S. investment dollars, ignoring demonstrators outside shouting 'Down with Butcher Zia.'
Zia, on the fifth day of a tour of the United States and Canada, said Pakistan had done away with most controls on its economy, leaving the industrial sector 'almost entirely to private enterprise.'
He pledged by mid-1983 to rid the economy of 'all constraints and irritants which have outlived their utility and which no longer serve any economic or social purpose.'
The 58-year-old general said his country was particularly interested in foreign investment in the energy sector to remedy shortages.
'Foreign investment in oil and gas exploration, for which reasonably good prospects exist, would be most welcome,' Zia told dinner guests who paid $100 a plate.
Earlier Zia met separately with former President Richard Nixon and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as well as Citicorp President Walter Wriston and industrialist Armand Hammer.
The demonstration outside the New York Hilton, where Zia addressed a dinner organized by the American Chamber of Commerce, was the largest since the president arrived in the United States.
About 100 people braved a biting chill to carrying banners reading, 'Free Benazir Bhutto,' 'No U.S. Arms to Zia' and 'We Want Elections.'
Benazir Bhutto is the daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom Zia deposed in 1977 and allowed to be hanged. She is the acting head of the political party her father once led.
In Islamabad, the government Friday extended Miss Bhutto's house detention for another 90 days. She was arrested in March 1981.
Despite the demonstrations, the American business leaders voiced optimism that investment prospects in Pakistan were improving.
'The atmosphere does seem to be better than it has been in years,' said an official of the chamber, which is trying to organize a new branch in Pakistan to inform American businessmen of investment opportunities.
An American company also announced formation of a joint venture to form 'Pakistan Computers Ltd.' to manufacture computers in Pakistan and market them in the region.
Smoke Signal Broadcasting Inc. of Westlake Village, California said it had teamed up with Medco Electronics Ltd. of Karachi to form the joint venture.
Zia, who spent four days in Washington before arriving in New York, was to travel to Houston Saturday and will visit California before journeying to Canada.
