Unity, peace vital for economic growth: Malik

The country's image needs to be improved to attract foreign investment.

KARACHI: Unity of the nation and peace within the country are very important for economic development and prosperity while lack of dialogue leads to fragmentation of the society that hinders development, said Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

Addressing a ceremony held to celebrate the nomination of prominent businessman Anjum Nisar as the ambassador of peace by the executive body of the Organisation of World Peace, Denmark here on Thursday evening, Malik said that Pakistan has been suffering for over 10 years and still continues to struggle to have peace.

“If there is no peace in a country, then you cannot progress. It is evident that with the lack of peace in any given region, the educational, health and commerce sectors are very badly affected and development in these sectors is vital for a country to move towards prosperity,” he added.

“We, as a nation, need to ensure that we develop a better image and eradicate all terrorism activities from the country as otherwise foreign investors will continue to shy away from Pakistan,” he said.

Malik said Pakistan has tried to deal with the import of terrorism from Afghanistan very seriously, but the government needs to work in cooperation with other countries to tackle the problem.

Praising businessmen, he said that while Karachi was under constant pressure of target killings and bomb blasts, the business community has continued to work and did not take their investments to foreign countries.

Referring to the reaction of businessmen to the imposition of reformed general sales tax, Malik said, “People always talk about Pakistan that it is not progressing well, but when we [government] try to impose taxes, there is uproar.”

He said if the economy owes to people, then the people also owe something to the economy in the form of taxes. Giving examples of developed countries, Malik said taxes help the governments to improve economy as widening of the tax base is essential to move the country forward.

Acting Speaker Sindh Assembly Shehla Raza and prominent businessmen also spoke on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2010.