Wealth belongs to individual, resources to society: Dr Suleri

Islamabad: SDPI Executive Director Abid Qaiyum Suleri has said that we need to promote the slogan that wealth belongs to an individual but resources belong to the society and the concept of sustainable production and sustainable consumption is to promote social justice.

Dr Suleri was speaking on the second day of 3-day 26th Sustainable Development Conference on Wednesday organised here by Sustainable Development Policy Institute here. Dr Suleri said that there is an abundance of policies with regard to production and consumption, but their implementation is less than desired. He said that more emphasis is given to production but consumption is equally important.

Sanjay Vashist from CANCA, India, stressed the need for holding discussion among stakeholders, including the government, civil society, policy makers and private sector in the context of sustainable production and sustainable consumption.

Dr Ali Kamal, representative from SGDs Task Force, said we need to use our resources responsibly as according to available data we waste 36-million-ton food annually. He added that for sustainable growth and production we need to minimise the use of natural resources and material in a manner which is socially beneficial particularly from environment point of view.

Former Federal Minister for Finance Dr Hafiz Pasha said that between the years 2020-2022, Pakistan witnessed massive decline in human security indices and in the last two years, 41% increase in the food prices was witnessed which significantly undermines food security and nutritional security of the people.

Dr Hamza Ali Malik, Director, Macroeconomic Policy and Financing for Development, UNESCAP, said there are two birth defects that Pakistan still confronts; one is the confusion as if we are a nation or Islamic state and the second being the type of government structure. Unless the core issues are resolved, course correction for policies is impossible and policy fatigue will continue without yielding optimal results.

Dr Tariq Banuri from the University of Utah, US, said that human development provides us with a framework on how to resolve problems. He recalled his meeting with Dr Mohammad Younis and quoted him saying: "I did never want to do it (microfinace). I just wanted to make people's lives better."

Dr Akmal Siddique, Technical Advisor, Ministry of National Food Security and Research, said the county’s agriculture especially farming is not much profitable and it needs to make profits on sustainable basis. He pointed out that modern agriculture is not a cup of tea for any farmer as it requires government policies, strategies, investment in research and development.

SDPI on the occasion conferred Living Legend Series Award to Dr Pervez Hassan for his unparalleled contributions in the fields of environmental protection and education. Justice Mansoor said the history of environmental law would be incomplete without his work as Dr Pervez was the force behind PEPA legislation. Dr Ishrat Hussain called him a man of vision and when economists were skeptical about climate change, Dr Pervez believed that it was a serious issue.