Cross-party cooperation urged for ‘stability’

In the wake of deep economic crisis being faced by the country, Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Friday called upon all the politicians, irrespective of party affiliation, to work as a team to come out of the crisis.

“Pakistan is passing through the worst economic crisis so, it is not the time to fight with each other but to work together to elevate the country among the world’s top economies”, he said while speaking as chief guest at the launching ceremony of British Council’s report on Friday.

The minister also urged all stakeholders including the establishment, judiciary, and the politicians, to put heads together to ensure sustainable socio-economic development of the country.

Iqbal said Pakistan has a huge proportion of young people who should be given the best socio-politico-economic environment to ensure a strong and stable Pakistan in next decade or so. He added that Pakistan is celebrating its 75th years of formulation, but still, its economy is so weak that it seems helpless in front of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to get a few billions of dollars of loans.

"Corruption isn’t the major reason behind our failure because we are as honest as the rest of the world is and as corrupt as others are," he said, adding that the main reason is a disruption in the democratic system and policies. He said whatever the government system the state adopts, it must be ensured that there must be continuity of policies.

Iqbal said that in order to empower youth, the government has launched an internship programme for youth under which 60,000 young graduates from across the country would get paid internships.

Similarly, he said the government would impart Information Technology (IT) based skilled training besides providing an opportunity to another 100,000 young people to get technical and vocational training. Likewise, the minister added that 100,000 university students would also be provided laptops to make them digitally empowered.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2023.