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KARACHI, Jan 06 (APP):Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Monday said that the federal government under Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was committed to ensuring national uplift, which is reflected in the new initiative called ‘Uraan Pakistan’.
While talking to media persons, along with Sindh Minister for Planning and Development and Energy Syed Nasir Hussain Shah after a meeting on federally-funded PSDP projects at Sindh Planning and Development Department, he acknowledged the challenges saying that they emerged as a mismanagement and mis-governance in the past by the poor conduct of the previous government.
He said that the federal government would try to resolve issues raised by the Sindh government and would work together for development of the country under the new initiative.
Earlier, the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Ahsan Iqbal in the meeting with top-officials and representatives of Planning and Development Sindh reviewed the PSDP projects.
The meeting was chaired by Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal alongside the Provincial Minister for Planning and Development Sindh Nasir Shah. P&D Sindh Chairman Najam Ahmed Shah and other Secretaries briefed the Federal Minister of the projects.
The meeting detailed an overview of PSDP and the share of Sindh Government was discussed with the Federal Minister by the Sindh Planning Development Board. The Meeting also presented the review of PSDP projects under Minister Planning, Development and Special Initiatives. During the meeting Chairman PSDP detailed the strategic barriers and pending approvals from the Ministry of Finance due to which several projects were in the pipeline and once approved would result in four crucial road projects linking key and road projects that are also under approval request with the National Highway Authority (NHA).
The current progress and challenges in the Sindh People’s Housing Project For Flood Affectees (SPHF) were also highlighted.
Ahsan Iqbal said that ‘Uraan Pakistan’ was based on the planning to forget the faults made in our past but look towards the future and hope that they had managed to create initiatives that would ensure Pakistan’s stability, policy continuation and a pro-reform agenda
He further stated that it was essential to make export-led growth your motto. Provincial competition on the basis of export initiatives must take place. Every province must create an export development board to work on factors that would improve export quality and general overall management. Ensuring a foolproof initiative to deal with export servicing will in turn lead to the funds being used for debt servicing and pipe them into projects that would hasten the progress of Pakistan.
E-Pakistan is another aspect that must be absorbed as quickly as possible. “The global arena is currently competing on which country is best able to adapt to the requirements and infrastructure for Artificial Intelligence. We need to generate a massive technology adoption.”
Water and food security were also an alarming warning that was being given to us. He pointed the need for a green revolution.
Energy and infrastructure was handled by the Federal Government but the overall policies were contingent upon the cooperation of the Provincial Governments. Both Governments need to ensure energy losses are cut down to the minimum.
Ahsan Iqbal touched upon the social angle of societal uplifting, he expressed that Universal primary education is the key for any successful nation. He said that literacy rate of Pakistan stands at 60 percent when it should ideally be over 80. Education is the rudimentary factor in determining the overall success of a country.
The meeting discussed some crucial projects that were imperative for the overall betterment of KB feeders and water management to elevate the plight of water shortage leading to a stark rise in the general living standards of masses, there is an urgent need for Pakistan to embrace sustainable water management methods.
The Federal Minister also stressed the role of development and infrastructure strategies for Karachi which would in turn shape the future of Pakistan, stating that the development of Karachi is directly tied to the development of the whole country. He expressed the need of integrating Federal and Provincial Government allegiance to elevate Pakistan on all fronts, be it e-Governance, technology, IT or Green initiative.