LAHORE: “A dialogue can only be held with terrorists if they disarm”, said former federal minister Abida Hussain at a seminar organized by the Pakistan Visionary Forum at TECH Society Club on Sunday. She raised the question: How are Pakistan’s armed forces, the fifth largest military in the world, unable to address the problem of terrorism? Hussain said she supported Tahir ul Qadri’s demand for a free and fair Privatisation Commission in Pakistan.
Iftikhar Khan, author of “The Silent Peaceful Revolution” said an economic revolution through tax reform could generate employment for 25 million Pakistanis.
Pervaiz Nazir, a professor at Cambridge Unviersity, said Pakistan was a soft state in transition.
Iftikharul Haq, a former member of the Privatisation Commission said foreign investment had ceased due to increasing terrorist attacks.
Qayyum Nizami, a former minister of state, said a class struggle was necessary to break the status quo. He said incompetent people had become public representatives in the parliament due to a corrupt system. He said a peaceful revolution was the need of the hour to bring positive change.
Dr. Hasibullah, advisor to Comsats University said knowledge reservoirs in Pakistan were drying. Jameel Bhatti, former Punjab auditor general, said the youth were unaware of the reasons for the creation of Pakistan. He added that priority should be given to bigger challenges and the smaller issues would automatically be resolved when major problems had been overcome.
Khalid Saleem, former advisor tot eh International Monetary Fund, said news about corrupt practices in the government had led to prompt action in the past. Recently this had not been the case, in spite of repeated coverage of such issues in the media.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2014.