ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage on Thursday said that the human dev
elopment indicators plunge into a nosedive during dictatorship, whereas during the democratic era, they start showing upward trend.
She said this while speaking at the three-day 20t
h Sustainable Dev
elopment Conference held under the auspices of Sustainable Dev
elopment Policy Institute (SDPI).
The minister said, during dictatorships foreign funding comes in the country and the gross domestic product (GDP) also goes up, but the fruits of dev
elopment do not reach the masses. She said that for the last four years the targets of sustainable dev
elopment were being achieved with better results.
She said that Pakistan was striving for sustainable dev
elopment and the allocation of Rs 1 trillion in the budget for 2016-17 for the Public S
ector Dev
elopment Programme (PSDP), which was the highest ever in the budgetary history of Pakistan, adequately reflected that commitment. She said that no worthwhile planning could be undertaken without the availability of authentic data and information.
Marriyum said that the parliament had a key role in the sustainable dev
elopment and Pakistan was the first country where a secretariat on sustainable dev
elopment in the parliament was established through the efforts of Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, which was playing an active role in the achievement of sustainable dev
elopment goals (SDGs). She inform
ed the audience that after the 18th amendment some of the SDGS had been transferred to the provinces, where provincial task forces connected to the Sustainable Dev
elopment Secretariat of the parliament were also adequately contributing to that effort. Marriyum said that when the millennium SDGS arrived, they also became a casualty of dictatorship. The minister congratulat
ed the organisers for convening a conference on sustainable dev
elopment like the previous years. She said that it was the best forum where representatives of the government, the stakeholders working for human dev
elopment, media and international partners got together to find solutions to the confronting challenges. Marriyum also eulogis
ed the services of Shahnaz Wazir Ali for the dev
elopment sector.
Published in Daily Times, December 7th 2017.
