ISLAMABAD: Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Tuesday that the government had decided to evaluate performance of ministries in terms of implementation of ‘Vision 2025’. He said each ministry would get green or red scores on progress of implementation.

It had also been decided that quarterly reports on the achievement of goals by ministries would be submitted to the prime minister, Mr Iqbal said while presiding over a workshop on implementation of ‘Vision 2025’.

He maintained that all pillars of ‘Vision 2025’ address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are to be approved by the United Nations General Assembly next month. The Planning Commission has set up a SDGs Unit to monitor implementation of SDGs so that mistakes of the past are not repeated. SDGs are critical to lay foundation for a healthy and balanced development of the country.

Mr Iqbal called for “running faster than the front runners” to catch up the world as, according to him, “Pakistan is already lagging behind due to negligence on our part”. In this regard, he specifically mentioned the last year’s protest sit-in by the Imran Khan’s PTI which was held a few days after the official launching of ‘Vision 2025’.

Stressing the need for the development of human resource, which is a key for inclusive and sustainable growth, the planning minister said that a holistic approach was needed for human resource development by synergising efforts on education, health, nutrition and population.

He called for reforming the national curriculum to nurture critical thinking, creativity and innovative skills, which is the essence of knowledge.

He stressed the need for speedy implementation of the project of National Curriculum Council to design a curriculum compatible with the changing requirements in 21st century and an examination system in accordance with requirements of new curriculum.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2015

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