Terrorism cases have fallen since 2013: Iqbal

Country had faced up to 4,500 incidents of terrorism till 2013, which had now decreased to 450 such incidents a year

Terrorism cases in the country have fallen to just a tenth since 2013 while energy projects part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had boosted the economy.

This was stated by Federal Minister for Planning Professor Ahsan Iqbal while addressing the ninth International CSR Summit and Awards, organised by the National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH).

He added that the crippling energy crisis had brought the country to the brink of a civil-war like situation in 2013.

“We should remember the times in 2013 when the country had been facing 18 to 20 hours of loadshedding and labourers were protesting on the streets creating a civil war-like situation due to near shutdown of the industries,” Iqbal said, adding that now “loadshedding had been curtailed by four to six hours daily.”

He added that owing to investment received through the CPEC project, the government was going to add 11,000 megawatts of electricity to national grid by 2018.

On terrorism, he said that country had been facing up to 4,500 incidents of terrorism every year till 2013, which had now decreased to around 450 such incidents a year.

NFEH President Naeem Qureshi that his forum had been supporting corporate sector in philanthropy and in for investing in socio economic sectors since 2007.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2017.