Punjab University Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran has said that only those nations have progressed who have invested in three sectors ie education, creation of new knowledge and training. He was addressing a one day conference on "Democracy and Governance in Pakistan: Challenges and Opportunities" organized by PU Pakistan Study Centre here on Wednesday.
Renowned political scientist Professor Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, Dean Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Director PSC Professor Dr Massarrat Abid, Professor Dr Muhammad Waseem, renowned scholars, intellectuals were present on the occasion. Citing the example of China, South Korea, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, Dr Mujahid Kamran said that there was no one formula to put the nation and country on the road to progress.
He said that unless the top leadership takes good policy decision in the three sectors, no country could progress. He said that the US was spending 320 to 380 billion dollars "only on research and development" while Pakistan's total GDP was 225 billion dollars and the country was spending less than 2 percent on "education" per year. He said that we were facing the problems because ignorance and lack of knowledge was prevailing at all levels.
He said that if the politicians would not resolve the issues themselves, the importance of Army would increase. He appealed to all the political parties to focus on resolving problems of the people. Professor Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi said that the democratic institutions were facing challenges and question was arising that whether political leadership could show capacity of conflict management. He said that in our present circumstances, Parliament and other democratic institutions were looking irrelevant.
He said that the present challenge was not new but today's crisis was most threatening because military was fighting terrorists and needed popular support. He said that our attitudes had become undemocratic which was reflecting in the speeches of political leadership. He said that it was the responsibility of political leadership to resolve the matters and should not provide a chance to military to resolve the problems.
Dr Muhammad Waseem criticised the role of media and said that media was playing very negative role in the present crisis. He said that a person who did not have representation in Parliament was being given maximum air time and projection in media. He said that unfortunately violence had been institutionalised in Pakistan.
Professor Dr Massarrat Abid highlighted the major problems confronted by Pakistan in regard to strengthening democratic traditions and in achieving the goal of good governance. She said that with proper planning, policy formulation and implementation, the problems could be solved. She thanked Vice Chancellor for his support for organising the conference and the Higher Education Commission for providing financial support.
Professor Sajjad Naseer also spoke about vulnerability of democracy in Pakistan in the wake of poor governance over the last six decades of political history. Professor Razia Musarrat said that democracy and governance go hands in gloves with each other. Professor Dr Ishaq Fani and Professor Dr Muhammad Ijaz Butt also spoke about relationship between democracy and governance.
Lively question-answer sessions were also held at the end of both sessions of the conference. Delegates from Lahore, Multan and Bahawalpur presented their researcher paper at the conference, which was attended by a large number of students and faculty members of Punjab University and of various colleges of Lahore. At the venue PSC and Oxford University Press Pakistan held a book exhibition.
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