Terrorism-financing watchlist: move to hurt country's capabilities to fight terrorism: Ahsan

Federal Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has warned that putting Pakistan's name on the watch list of the countries funding terrorism would be counterproductive for the war against terror. He was talking to reporters here on Monday after a ceremony titled "Inclusive and Sustainable Development: Analytical basis and policy framework" jointly launched by the United Nation Development Programme Pakistan (UNDP) and Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms.
He said the move to put Pakistan on the watch list would hurt its capability to fight terrorism and questioned whose interest would be served by doing so. The United Nation Development Programme Pakistan (UNDP) and Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms launched a report titled "Inclusive and Sustainable Development: Analytical basis and policy framework".
Iqbal, who is also the Minister in charge of the Ministry for Planning, Development and Reforms, chaired the event. He said Pakistan was diplomatically engaged with various countries of the world to apprise them of the measures taken by the government in the war against terror. He said it was because of democracy that the country was today having historic projects like China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He said there was a procedure for putting names on the Exit Control List. The Minister said that only democracy could ensure sustainable socio-economic development.
He expressed the confidence that the international community would recognise sacrifices of Pakistan in the war against terror and would not take measures that would hamper its anti-terror campaign. He condemned continued unprovoked firing by India on the Line of Control and said that New Delhi was resorting to the tactics in a bid to divert attention from its atrocities against people in Occupied Kashmir.
The report authored by economist Dr Akmal Hussain highlights that there had been a historical shift in the conceptual basis for growth policy and the earlier view that economic inequality was a necessary concomitant to high growth had been overturned by new research which showed that high economic inequality was harmful for growth sustainability. Earlier at the launch of the report, Ahsan Iqbal maintained that the government while devising action plan for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) realized the need to devolve education and health sectors at district level to improve public service delivery and implement the global agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in letter and spirit.
He said efforts in that regard enabled to have district levels SDGs implementation plans as well as resulted in formulation of broader national framework, adding that "Pakistan has accorded the highest priority to goals which will enable it to join the league of upper middle class countries by 2030". He said the goals included zero poverty and hunger, universal access to health services, education, modern energy services, clean water and sanitation. The minister said Pakistan was the first country to adopt SDGs 2030 agenda through a unanimous resolution of Parliament as Pakistan Development Goals.
"We believe that SDGs agenda of development isn't an international agenda, it is our own agenda. It reflects our ambition and desire to give our people better quality of life. Therefore, we must take full ownership of SDGs with complete devotion and passion," he added. He said the government conducted post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) consultations with all stakeholders for coordinating and strengthening efforts at federal and provincial levels to achieve sustainable development and poverty reduction targets. He further maintained that Pakistan Vision 2025 advocated for inclusive and sustainable development as the basic principle on which the future economic endeavours of the country could be based. Iqbal said the Vision 2025 provided a comprehensive national long term strategy for achieving inclusive growth and sustainable development.
Iqbal suggested that "we have to ensure quality education at all levels to impart best skills to our youth by improving the physical infrastructure, focusing on teachers' training and curriculum & examination reforms. That is the only way to ensure a sustainable change in our education system." The minister pointed out that most of the areas concerning SDGs fell under the jurisdiction of provinces and their service delivery rested with them. However, realising capacity issues, the federal government decided to enhance working relationship with the provinces thereby trying her level best to provide them every possible support to ensure successful implementation of the SDGs.
The minister said that the country was facing acute energy shortage in 2013, the current regime had steered the country out of the crisis as the country was enduring 16 to 20 hours on daily basis. Now after 4.5 years, the country's economy is being ranked among the five top growing economies of the world. He said the worst power outages had jeopardized the entire system of the country, industrial production remained at lowest level but the current government due to strenuous efforts revived the economy. Owing to various steps taken by the new government in 2013 onwards, he said the country's economic growth rate reached 5.3 percent the highest one during the last nine years and it was expected to reach six percent. "Economic growth had stagnated at three percent when this government came into power."
Last year, Pakistan achieved a growth rate of 5.3 percent and the government is expecting it to reach six percent this year, said the minister, adding that the industrial growth had increased significantly due to the addition of 11,000MW of electricity to the national grid.