Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms (PD&R), Professor Ahsan Iqbal has warned that any political crisis and uncertainty in the country would dampen economic growth momentum achieved by the country. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday to rejoice the recent report by the Transparency International which showed corruption was decreasing in the country, Ahsan Iqbal said, "Pakistan is in the taking off position, please do not disturb".
He warned that any political crisis would be detrimental for the investments coming to various fields. The Minister PD&R said that momentum for growth was going up and if any political crisis was created, the new investments from abroad could lose its significance. He said that the incumbent government took the economy out of economic crisis of 2013 to new levels of stability, as the foreign exchange reserves had increased three fold from just $8 billion to $24 billion.
Ahsan Iqbal said that due to improvements in governance and introduction of reforms, Pakistan's ranking by Transparency International moved from one-third bottom-line countries to one-third middle countries. "Pakistan improved its ranking by nine spots," he remarked.
Pakistan was heading towards inclusion in the top one-third countries of the world in transparency ranking, he added. He said transparency in governance was evident from the fact that opposition could not take even a single case to the court on charges of corruption.
The Minister said that Pakistan in 2013 was declared the most dangerous country by Newsweek magazine as yearly 4000 incidents of terrorism were reported. He said in 2013, terrorists besieged the state but now the situation was reversed and the terrorists were on the run.
The Minister expressed the hope that during the coming two years, six percent growth rate would be achieved. He was of the view that in order to accommodate youth and generate employment opportunities for two million people every year, the country needed to achieve growth of 6 to 7 percent in years to come. He warned that if this growth rate was not consistently achieved the demographic dividend of the country would turn into a demographic disaster.