ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said that political stability was the only and sole option to make the country prosperous and economically developed.
Addressing the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIES) Convocation here, the minister cited examples of some of Asian economies who were lagging far behind Pakistan few decades ago but now they were growing at a faster pace than Pakistan.
He said the economies of the countries like Vietnam, Myanmar and Bangladesh were rapidly growing due to the fact there was political stability in those countries.
The Minister said “we should follow the Chinese model who only believes in their political stability which is root-cause of their development”.
He said the country’s population consist of majority of young people who were capable enough to change the country’s fate.
He said the students were future of the country and they could help Pakistan to become one of the top 25 economies in the world by 2025 as envisioned by the present government under the “Vision-2025 roadmap”.
He said the Pakistani engineers were working day and night alongwith the Chinese engineers here to bring the country out of energy crisis.
Ahsan Iqbal elaborated upon some of the key successes of the present government and said that in 2013 the country’s energy crisis was worse and 18-hour a day loadshedding was being observed while now the situation was gradually changing.
He hoped that by 2018, 10,000 MW more electricity would be included in the national grid which would curtail the country’s energy problem.
He said about two and half years ago, terrorism was on the rise while now due to ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb, the terrorism has reduced significantly.
“In 2013, the world was terming Pakistan as safe haven for terrorists while now in 2016, the same Western media is terming it as a safe heaven for investment”, Mr Ahsan Iqbal added.
“Through integrity, creativity, commitment and patriotism, our scientists and engineers have established their credibility by achieving the targets assigned to us in the fields of nuclear science & engineering”, he added.
