Country needs leader with statesmanship qualities: Qayyum

LAHORE : “An elected and experienced political leader with statesmanship qualities can take Pakistan out of current difficult situation. The leader should be tolerant, humble and firm”.

These views were expressed by Lt-Gen Abdul Qayyum (retd), president Ex-Servicemen Society, while presiding over a roundtable conference” here on “National Security - Challenges and Response”. The conference was organised jointly by Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society and Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman Memorial Society.

Gen Abdul Qayyum was of the view the biggest problem facing Pakistan at the moment was heavy external debt and its interest payments. “We have to enhance our industrial and agricultural production and increase foreign exchange remittances to meet this challenge”, he remarked.

He said it was imperative to send skilled labour and educated lot to Europeand countries like Japan, South Korea and Kuwait where they could get three times more salary than labour employed in UAE. The situation could be improved by increasing exports and reducing imports and making the revenue collection system free from bribery, he observed.

Another challenge, the PESS president said was failure of state-owned enterprises.“These entities should be run efficiently or privatised transparently”, he suggested. He also pointed out neglected education sector which he said needed to be overhauled.

He informed the audience millions of children in the country wereout of schools.Educational reforms were urgently required with focus on teachers’ training. The uncontrolled growth in population was another problem in the country, he said,stating the population had reached the figure of 240 million.

He said the country needed agricultural revolution, which was possible through agriculture research, use of modern machines, better quality fertilizer and new varieties of seeds. “Our foreign policy needs strategic direction to increase number of our friends in the international community”, he noted. Strengthening of our defence and enhancing combat potential wasalso very important against terrorism, he added.

Gen (retd) Abdul Qayyumdemanded an increase in the pensions of ex-servicemen, specifically the widows of martyred. He thanked Mir Khalil-ur-RehmanMemorial Society Jang Group of Newspapers for organising this roundtable conference.

Aziz Ahmed Awan said Pakistan was going through severe economic crisis.Services of the Army would be written in golden letters to maintain peace in the country, he said. Professor DrTalatNaseer Pasha called for systematically running of education system.

Jamaat-e-Islami leader DrFaridParachaemphasised improvement in the curriculum.DrSamihaRaheelQazi said the country should be runwith unity. PMLN leader Dr Saeed Elahi said relations with neighbouring countries needed to be improved.

Senior journalist RaeesAnsaistressed strong system governing the country, as we all hadcaused harm to Pakistan.

Regional Director Allama Iqbal Open University ProfAmanullah Malik said education could solve many problems facing the country. Dr M Ehsan said manufacturing sector must be productive to enhance imports.

Dr Amina Muazzam said we should respect and honour each other. Religious scholar Allama Syed Jawad Naqvi said the country's economy could not be improvedthrough development of agriculture sector only.PPP senior leaderSajida Mir said learning a lesson from the past mistakes was only a way forward.

Assistant ProfDrSaima Butt said internal security should be improved to safeguard national security. Senior anchor said the four pillars of the State needed to be strengthened. Senior journalist WasifNagi said what required at the moment was unity among the people.