President Mamnoon Hussain on Wednesday said the state was responsible for creating a healthy political, social and economic environment conducive to development and stressed the role of civil service to ensure its efficient functioning. Addressing the participants of 99th National Management Course belonging to different occupational groups at the Aiwan-e-Sadr here, the President said the country's people rightly expected prudent policies and good governance to address their problems.
President Mamnoon Hussain said as development generates income, the good governance carries its benefits down to the masses. "The ultimate aim of public policy is to promote public welfare in an integrated manner, its success is to be judged by the impact it produces on the well-being of the target population," he said. The President pointed out that many well-designed policies failed because they were not followed and pursued by equally genuine practical actions. The President urged the civil servants to discharge their duties efficiently with utmost diligence, honesty, devotion and commitment strictly within the framework of law.
He expressed hope that participants in the course would realise this important prerequisite for the policy to deliver the desired dividends. He said Pakistan is a developing country facing many challenges including poverty, illiteracy, diseases and low productivity in different sectors of the economy. He said the country's development needs are multifarious and it needs fast socio-economic development to provide social justice and improve the living standard of the people. The President appreciated the efforts of the National School of Public Policy for developing such useful courses so as to equip their officers with the state-of-the-art management techniques about policy formulation and implementation.
He called for constantly updating the curriculum of the course to keep pace with the changing training needs of the present and future policy formulators. He expressed hope that the interaction with eminent scholars, politicians and administrators would improve the knowledge of the course participants and would strengthen their confidence to deal with complex public issues.
President Mamnoon quoted the speech of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on 14th April 1948 who urged the civil servants to not only serve the government loyally and faithfully but also fearlessly besides maintaining high reputation, prestige and integrity of their service. He felicitated the National School of Public Policy (NSPP) and its management for their contribution for the capacity-building of the officers and helping them develop a better understanding of correct policy formulation and its effective implementation.
Rector National School of Public Policy Ismail Qureshi in his welcome address said the course focused on developing understanding on governance, working of the Federal Government and their problems, inter-ministerial relationship, decision-making and the on-ground policy making. He mentioned that course participants are given a chance to do exercises on different areas including national security, economy, governance and are then asked to devise strategies on how to handle a certain situation. Later, the Rector NSPP presented a memento to President Mamnoon.