Ahsan Iqbal urges social scientists to study causes of terrorism, extremism
Ahsan said peace and stability was the key to economic development of any nation.
ISLAMABAD (APP) - Minister for Interior, and Planning Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday called upon the social scientists to research causes of terrorism, extremism, and internal differences in the society and find out solutions to make nation more united, integrated and economically sound.
He was chairing a session on “Preparing Pakistan on Global Knowledge Economy” organized by ministry of Planning here today.
“The social scientists should tell how can we create strength in our diversity and how can we turn this diversity to unity,” he added.
Ahsan Iqbal said in order to promote social science in the country, he had directed to establish Academy of Social Sciences which he hoped would be set up in near future. He said development was not just building infrastructure but it also involves change of mindset and capacity building of the people.
“The social scientists can play pivotal role to build positive thinking among the people of the society so as to work together as a nation by ignoring their cultural, ethnic, religious, and political differences,” he added.
He said peace and stability was the key to economic development of any nation.
In China, he said the whole nation is united to help sustain political stability. He urged that “we as a nation should raise voices over political stability to achieve sustainable economic development”.
We should also compete with our neighbors and should set targets of economic growth more than what our neighbors do.
He said he personally took interest in enhancing the budget of Higher Education for the budget 2018-19 and approved Rs 47 billion as compared to budget allocation of Rs 35 billion during last year.
He said currently over 1000 scholarships were still lying on the table for talented students seeking for higher studies abroad, however he noted that even 1000 talented students are not being found for this purpose.
The minister said the government was also mulling over sending students to Russia for higher studies and for this purpose it had also approved 100 scholarships to learn Russian language.
To a question, Ahsan Iqbal said some foreign elements were fueling Pakistan’s internal differences and trying to weaken Pakistan on economic front.
