- Abbasi interacts with students from London’s prestigious business school at PM Office
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday urged foreign students to visit various cities of Pakistan and to see for themselves the progress it has made besides witnessing the peace and stability in the country.
Talking to a delegation of students from the prestigious London Business School (LBS) here at the PM Office, he said that there had been a quantum improvement in Pakistan with the democracy taking hold and economic conditions improving.
Pakistan recorded 5.7% GDP growth rate and plans to increase it to six percent, the prime minister said while interacting with the students, many of whom were visiting Pakistan for the first time. Visit of the students was under the Prime Minister’s Connect programme to enhance understanding about the country.
Prime Minster Abbasi said that it was time that the world took note of Pakistan’s sacrifices in the largest war against terrorism in which thousands of its troops and civilians laid down their lives to rid the country and the region of this scourge. He said that Pakistan fought this war from its own resources and pointed that the major challenge of terrorism had adversely impacted economy.
However, he pointed out that the government worked hard to bring peace and now Pakistan was a vibrant market for investors. He mentioned the recent visit of Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai after almost six years and said it was a manifestation that peace had been restored.
He also said that the government had established power plants and was planning to construct more than 1700 kilometres of six-lane motorways across Pakistan under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to improve connectivity within the country and with the region. He said that CPEC’s energy projects had brought substantial relief to power consumers.
The prime minister said that Pakistan was a peaceful country and its peaceful nuclear programme was a deterrent for those who wanted to destabilise the country and for its sovereignty. He said that Pakistan had always strived for bringing peace and stability to the region through dialogue.
Earlier, the visiting students also received a briefing from Special Assistant to PM Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, who was also present during the meeting, regarding the structure and working of the executive branch of the government.
