Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has “zero conflict policy” with neighbours including India, Afghanistan and other states in the larger interest of the country.
While addressing an international conference on ‘Social Change and Security Imperatives: Challenges for Leadership and Democratic Governance in Pakistan’ held at Forman Christian College on Thursday, Iqbal said that a comprehensive development plan for 20 to 25 years was being prepared. He stressed that it should not be seen as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s plan rather a ‘national policy’ to set dimensions of futuristic progress in the country.
French Counsellor for Cooperation & Cultural Affairs in Pakistan Martine Herlem Hamidi, FC College Rector Dr James Tebbe and Centre for Public Policy and Governance (CPPG) Director Dr Saeed Shafqat were also present on the occasion.
Iqbal said that education, health, energy, law and order and other important sectors would be accorded priority in this plan. He said that largely due to poor performance of previous regimes, the incumbent government was facing many issues including poverty, food security, energy crisis, unemployment, extremism, law and order and regretted that the country was earlier run on ‘year to year’ plans.
The minister said that Pakistan lost its eastern part just after 25 years of its creation due to non-existence of democracy. “And now we are faced with many problems in Balochistan and Sindh. On the other hand, India followed the course of democracy and is progress with leaps and bounds,” he added.
However, he noted that some maturity could be seen in the democratic process of the country. In this context, he highlighted the transition of power from one democratic government to the other.
“Chief justice and chief of army staff have assumed power through a constitutional process which is a positive sign for the country,” he appreciated.
He hoped for further consensus and harmony among all the democratic institutions over national issues and said that democracy was on the right track.
Talking about corruption, the minister said that there was a time when ‘corruption scandals’ were the talk of the media, but during seven months of the government, not even one such scandal could be found as the premier had demonstrated “zero tolerance” for corruption.
The minister concluded by saying, “Inter-dependency among the countries of South and Central Asia is the need of time as 3 billion people, almost half of total population of the globe, live here and the region is a hub of commerce and trade.”