close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Terrorists’ attempts can’t affect progress: Ahsan

By APP
March 16, 2018

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior, Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said the terrorists were taking last breath in the country and their futile attempts could not affect the country’s course to sustainable socio-economic development.

Talking to media after attending an event organised by Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) here at Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA), he strongly condemned the bomb blast at police check-post near Raiwind "Tableeghi Ijtma "site in Lahore last night. He said such cowardice activities of terrorists were showing their frustration as they could not see Pakistan flourished and prosperous country.

"Social and business activities in the country are getting boom, sports grounds are reviving while peace is being restored in the country so such few incidents cannot put negative impact," he added.

Paying tribute to those martyred in the incident, the Minister said the bomber could not enter the gathering due to timely action of police officials at check post. He said the police and other security officials were endangering their lives to ensure safety of citizens.

Earlier, addressing the seminar, the minister said that country needs strong and stable economy rather than heaps of weapons to further strengthen its defence. He said the country had a huge young population which has talent, energy, and commitment to work hard for the socio-economic development of the country.

He advised the youth to adopt innovative approach in their research and studies as today was the age of innovation and digital technology. He said peace in all over the country was restoring and the terrorists were on the run now.

He said even in far flung areas of Balochistan, the people were able to celebrate Independence Day. He said the government was also trying to provide fruits of development to the remotest areas of the country. He said for the first time in country's history, the government had made it possible to utilise the precious Thar coal and by the end of current year, the local coal would start producing electricity which would continue for next 400 years as the coal reserves in Tharparkar had energy equal to that of Iran and Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas reserves. He said so far the Thar Coal Mining project had achieved a depth of 120 meters and hoped that it would take few months to reach at the depth of coal.

The minister said, the current government had fulfilled the promise it made during 2013 elections and Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), a multinational professional services network headquartered in London, had also forecast that if current pace of development continued in Pakistan, it would be included in top 20 economies of the world by 2030.