Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower, Syed Khurshid Shah has stressed the need for continuity in the existing system of governance to give democracy a chance to flourish in the country. Chairing a session at the conference "Moving from Disasters to Development", organised by the Strengthening Participatory (SPO) here on Thursday.
The minister said that when dictators were in power, the politicians promised the masses that they would change the fate of the masses if they come into power, but regretted that the politicians forget their pledges after coming into power. He said that the PPP government had abolished and amended all those laws that allowed dictators to do further misadventures in the country. He said that it was unfortunate that political parties think for their respective tenure of government not for the country.
Referring to the country's deteriorating law and order situation, the minister held some foreign hands responsible for destabilising Pakistan. About the power outages in the country, he said that the problem of power shortfall would have been resolved if the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) had provided the funds.
Other speakers of the conference, stressed the need for good governance as well as constructive role of media and civil society to highlight issues for effective disaster response. In his address, former Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Javed Jabar underlined the need of community media aimed at focusing only the issues related to the masses without depending on the advertisements.
He said that unfortunately Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) did not issue a single license for a community media. He called for filling the existing huge gap between political and civil society for which media could play vital role.
Naseer Memon of the SPO said the recent devastating floods have raised many questions that needed to be addressed well in time to handle the natural calamities. He further said that there was need to think how to move from disasters to development, adding that governance was the biggest issue and it did not mean only government, but also included the role of civil society organisations, media and society.
He was of the view that every disaster brings an opportunity and they must avail it, adding that rather cursing on the past they should move forward for the development of the country. While addressing, Dr Pervez Tahir said it was unfortunate to keep reliance upon foreign aids instead of using their own resources to cope with the disasters and underscored the need for using domestic sustainable resources to resolve the calamity-hit issues.
He also underlined the role of media in creating awareness among the masses regarding the post disaster situation of 2005 earthquake as well as in recent devastating floods. He called upon the government to compensate the flood victims as well as think for their rehabilitation and reconstruction of their homes.