ISLAMABAD, Oct 20 (APP): President Dr Arif Alvi Wednesday urged the international community not to ignore Afghanistan and give humanitarian aid because if it would not be done extremist elements could prevail in the country.In an interview to Pakistan Television, he said if peace would be achieved in Afghanistan, Pakistan would greatly benefit from trade and business activities.
Central Asia would open up and Pakistan would benefit from the reconstruction and rehabilitation activities in Afghanistan, he added.
The United States spent $ 2.3 trillion on the war in Afghanistan, but the same money could have been used for ending hunger in the world, he pointed out.
He said Pakistanis would have to get behind a leader to move forward and this was happening now.
Pakistan was going through different challenges including rise in commodity prices at the international level. The economies across the world were facing the challenge of inflation, he noted.
The government through its Ehsaas programme was helping the vulnerable sections of society affected by the economic situation, he added.
The President said inflation was always increasing and job of the government was to create employment opportunities and raise the purchasing power of people.
To a question, he said the credit went to his team for the green presidency initiative.
The project was completed with the help of social corporate responsibility programme of companies, he said adding the initiative was using system of net electricity metering, LED lights, heat resistant paint besides conserving water, draining sewage and using compost.
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certified the green building project and in the next phase, management and maintenance certificates will be acquired for the President House, he said adding thousands of trees were planted in the presidency and now the planting of Mayawaki forest was in process.
Dr Alvi said he along with his wife were working on the projects of health, education and environment.
His wife was creating awareness on issues of breast cancer, women empowerment, inheritance rights, he continued.
“We improved the laws to protect women’s right to inheritance.”
He said it was need of the hour that Pakistan benefited from the progress made in the field of information technology.
The President was of the view that coding languages should be taught in schools, adding Pakistan should speedily move in the information technology sector.
“We have to produce quality graduates for the IT sector. We need to develop our human resource and export our intellect and know how.”
The world was opening up and making progress in areas of blockchains, cloud computing and neural networks, he maintained.
Steps should be taken to stop fake news, he said adding holy Quran stressed on taking precautions whenever a person came with news. He said nation should be united and free and fair elections would provide a basis for it. There was a need to create confidence about the electronic voting machines, he commented.
“Electronic voting machines and internet voting is a solution for free and fair elections,” he said adding electronic voting machine was simple as it only had a calculator and printer and its usage could easily be verified.
To a question, the President said the government of Pakistan Tehreek I Insaf (PTI) issued less ordinances as compared to the governments of Pakistan Muslim League(N) and Pakistan Peoples Party.
He said on occasions it became difficult to pass laws in Parliament and even law on women inheritance was passed with difficulty due to opposition, he told.
Responding to another question, Dr Arif Alvi said Islam did not support forced conversions and Islamic Ideological Council, Minorities Commission and Prime Minister always took action whenever rights of minorities were violated.
He said it was the responsibility of families, religious scholars and the education system to make society safe for women and ensure that she got financial independence.
