ISLAMABAD, Mar 22 (APP):Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Prof Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhry Thursday announced to launch a month-long campaign titled ‘Jazba-e-Tameer’ (Constructive Spirit) from March 23 to highlight success stories of individuals at different level.
“The drive will continue till April 22, during which one-minute duration video clips would be received by the ministry and top stories will be awarded with prizes,” he said while addressing a news conference here.
He invited youth and whole nation to participate in the campaign by sharing their success stories with the ministry.
He also asked the media to play its role in finding success stories of individuals who would have excelled or served the nation any field. “Media should visit each districts and provinces to find out the success stories of the individuals” he added.
The minister said the March, 23 had great significance for Pakistan as on that day in 1940, Muslims of the sub-continent had seen a dream of having their own motherland, Pakistan, that came into reality after a seven-year struggle and with ‘Jazba-e-Tameer.’
The other significance of March 23, which unfortunately has been forgotten, that Pakistan had got its first constitution on the same day in 1956.
And now, on March 23, 2018, the country needs the same spirit so that positive narrative of Pakistan could be projected effectively and the target set for the Vision-2025 could be achieved, he added.
“We want to list Pakistan among top 25 economies of the world by 20125,” he remarked.
He said the government made remarkable progress on various fronts as it succeeded in overcoming load-shedding , terrorism and improving national economy as it worked hard to put the country on sustainable path of progress and development.
He recalled that when the PML-N government came into power in 2013, there was power load-shedding for 20 to 22 hours a day, incidents of terrorism were a routine matter and economy was about to crash.
“The size of national economy has inflated from $ 210 billion to $ 310 billion during tenure of the PML-N government,” he said and expressed the resolve to take it to one trillion dollars figure.
Answering a question, the minister said there would be a significant increase in size of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the year 2018-19.
Replying to another question, he said international institutions were appreciating performance of Pakistan’s economy.
He said billions of dollars foreign investment was pouring in Pakistan due to prudent economic policies introduced by the government in a period of five years.
To a question about increase in petroleum prices, the minister said the government had nothing to do with it as prices were determined in accordance with international markets.
He said continuity in policies and political stability were imperative for achieving sustainable economic growth.