ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said that Pakistan can face water crisis if concerted measures are not taken to tackle this issue.
Ahsan Iqbal stated this while chairing a consultative workshop on vision 2025, arranged by the world’s leading management consultancy firm McKenzie & Company, at the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms.
The federal minister in his opening remarks said, “Focus of our fundamental challenge is implementation of 2025 plan on execution and delivery. We have to rigorously implement what is good for our country. It is our desire to develop vision 2025 on the basis of the people’s wisdom and broad-based ownership. Today development is not a rocket science; right things done at right time bring right results”.
He explained, “We have recently witnessed Pakistan’s first democratic transition which means that Pakistan is heading towards political stability which is one of the non-economic prerequisites of development,” adding that the other main issues were peace and solidarity, which could not be achieved so far.
The minister said that political instability inflicted a heavy cost to the country in the past which was even greater than corruption. He informed the audience, “In 1960s, Pakistan was thought to be the next rising star of Asia, after Japan, with exports size twice to South Korea. But later on due to lack of continuity of policies and political instability, we lost the race”.
“Our focus is mobilising indigenous resources. Pakistan’s tax base will be widened and investments will be encouraged. Our country’s location provides us great opportunity for harnessing potential of regional trade. For this purpose, the government is planning to upgrade infrastructure”, he added.
