Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal says that corruption is not impeding the economicĀ development and stability of Pakistan. He expressed these views while addressing a seminar in Islamabad on Monday.
Iqbal said that political instability and policy reversals are the biggest impediments to the development of Pakistan. Interestingly, the minister said that he can count many countries where there was an equal amount of corruption to Pakistan but they progressed far more than Pakistan.
Addressing a seminar in Islamabad, he said: “The biggest lesson today is that I can count many countries in the world that have developed despite having similar corruption as ours but you can’t point out a single country that has progressed despite political instability and discontinuity of policy.” Iqbal quoted the examples of India and Bangladesh, which he said have managed to grow despite having the same severe crisis of corruption. He said continuation is important.
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Ahsan Iqbal in his speech mentioned āotherā reasons for the economic impediments, however, he does not seem to count corruption as one of them. The minister said that there was a structural problem that was not allowing Pakistan to take off. He stressed that reforms would require “at least a decade” to truly work. “We have failed to give continuation to policies in this country and a big reason for that is our internal political situation,ā said Ahsan Iqbal.
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It is noteworthy to remember that a few days back Ahsan Iqbal had asked people to cut their tea consumption to save Pakistan since the country imports tea hence less consumption will reduce the import bill of the country.
His statement is garnering reaction on Twitter. It is not the first time any PMLN leader has talked about normalizing corruption. In one of his previous public statements, Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shahbaz, addressing children, said that corruption happens, it happens everywhere. Hamza Shahbaz said to let it happens since it will make Pakistanās future bright.