Institute of Business Administration Karachi Director Dr Ishrat Husain on Monday urged government to give more focus on implementation rather than only preparing policies, adding that if government focused on the proper implementation the country’s economic progress could be achieved.
While delivering a lecture at Prof Salimuzzaman Siddiqui Auditorium, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi (UoK), Dr Ishrat said policy without actions is useless and actions without policy are useless so the idea of implementation is better than useless plans and polices.
The program was organised by Alumni Club ICCBS on Monday. He said the proper execution of plans is 80 per cent in the hands of people while 20 per cent is associated with the government. Only one million people are paying taxes in this country; billions of rupees are being drained in the gas sector due to the mismanagement.
Prof Dr Attaur Rahman, former federal minister of science and technology and former chairman Higher Education Commission Pakistan, Prof Dr Zafar Saeed Saifi, former Vice Chancellor UoK, and other distinguished teachers and students of the university were also present on the occasion.
Dr Husain said that in the 21st century the knowledge became the main driving force of societal and economic development, adding that the country required a knowledge-based economy.
Quoting an example of Japan, he said although Japan has not natural resources, it made remarkable progress in every sector of life.
“Before 1960s Pakistan’s exports were higher than the combined exports of Indonesia and Malaysia. Transformation of economy takes place in 25 to 30 years; now we need to transform our country’s existing economy to knowledge based one. Untaxed economy is flourished in the country, which made the government deprived. As compared to the government private sector is wealthy in the country. The present government’s priority is only infrastructure. Power and gas demands are being increased in the country but we are not taking any concrete step to address the issue of the energy shortage,” he added.
Talking about the education system, Dr Hussain said that students must study for excellence, and to gain knowledge; it should not be taken with the only goal of economic prosperity. Dilemma of our teachers is they surround merely their economic desires, and press on their promotions only, he observed.
In the end, Prof Dr Atta-ur-Rahman praised the services of the veteran economist and educationist, and said that his lecture was a real food for thoughts for our students and researchers.
