ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage Wednesday said that the human development indicators plunge into a nosedive during dictatorships, whereas during the democratic era, they start showing an upward trend.
Speaking at the three-day 20th Sustainable Development Conference held under the auspices of SDPI, the minister said that during dictatorships foreign funding comes in the country and the gross domestic product (GDP) also goes up, but the fruits of development do not trickle down. However, during the democratic framework of the current government, the targets of sustainable development were being achieved with better results, said Marriyum.
She said that Pakistan was striving for sustainable development and the allocation of rupees one trillion in the budget for 2016-17 for the PSDP, which was the highest ever in the budgetary history of Pakistan, adequately reflecting the government’s commitment. She said that no worthwhile planning could be undertaken without the availability of authentic data and information.
Marriyum informed the audience that after the 18th amendment some of the SDGS have been transferred to the provinces, where provincial task forces connected to the Sustainable Development Secretariat of the parliament were adequately contributing to that effort.
The minister observed that in the absence of census during the last 19 years, the SDPI and other institutions from the development sectors extended full cooperation to the government in the area of data management, policy formulation and research.
She said that the participation of the foreign delegations in the conference was a testimony to the fact that Pakistan was a peaceful country, where terrorism and extremism had been checked in their tracks. She said that the government had also done a lot of work on the Access to Information Bill, which has been formulated in consultation with all the political parties represented in the Senate and the National Assembly.
She said that people could obtain information regarding any development sector, including climate, health, education, fatal diseases and health of the child and mother.
In the end of the ceremony, she distributed awards among the journalists from the electronic and print media, who had won distinction through their work on different areas of human development.