PHOTO: APP
LAHORE:
The people of Pakistan deserve good governance and speedy service delivery, Governor Malik Muhammad Rafiq Rajwana said on Tuesday.
He was addressing the participants of the 103rd National Management Course, organised by the National School of Public Policy on Tuesday.
“Things cannot remain business as usual. This must change. The civil services must change also. Reform of the civil service is the need of the hour. We should be mindful of the problems being faced by the government and the people of Pakistan,” he said.
The governor said that Pakistan had been through multiple challenges and was responding resolutely to them. “The biggest challenge faced by Pakistan today is terrorism. The government has demonstrated strong political will to eliminate it once for all. There is no going back on this,” he said.
He said that the National Action Plan had started yielding positive results. “Our military operation, Zarb-i-Azb, has produced great results. The nation has made a choice and we will not allow the cancer of extremism to infect the fabric of our society,” the governor said.
“It is our desire to have peace and security both within our borders and beyond. We want friendly relations with nations in our region, and the world at large,” he said.
The governor said that another huge problem Pakistan faced was energy shortage. “The focus of our government is not just on ending load-shedding in Pakistan for once. The government is aiming at laying the foundations of a robust energy sector that will meet the country’s needs for the next two decades,” he said.
Rajwana said that the government was particularly focusing on improving regional trade, investment and economic connectivity. “We want to progress very fast on major regional connectivity interventions like CASA 10001, TAPI Gas Pipeline 2 and proposed road connections to Central Asia through China and Afghanistan,” he said.
The governor said that focus of state institutions was on improving governance. “These challenges and follow up actions demand dedicated commitment by the civil servants at the federal and provincial level to ensure effective governance for the benefit of the people,” he said.
“The people of Pakistan expect responsive systems for redressal of their problems and issues. Good governance relates to the manner in which authority is exercised in the management of the country’s resources. It links growth with poverty reduction and curbing inequality,” he said.
He said that as economic growth generated income, good governance carried its effect down to the masses, particularly to the poor. “While the state is responsible for creating a conducive political, legal and economic environment for building individual capabilities, you as public functionaries are responsible for implementing it through good governance. People are at the heart of public policy and statecraft. It is their welfare by which you will be judged,” he said.
Earlier, National School of Public Policy Rector Ismail Qureshi had talked about the objectives of the training.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 16th, 2015.
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