Gwadar: At a seminar organised here on Saturday, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal highlighted the policies the government had introduced in the past few years to improve infrastructure, reduce unemployment and end loadshedding, and expressed hope that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would be a gateway to Pakistan’s prosperity and peace in Balochistan.

“When we came to power in 2013, the infrastructure of the country was in terrible state. There was an energy crisis and a rising unemployment rate. All the roads were in pitiable condition,” he said, adding that the government had dealt with these challenges to a large extent.

He said that in 2015, the world believed that Pakistan was the epicentre of global terrorism but that perception changed following an economic overhaul in the country.

“We have changed [much] in Pakistan... from geopolitics to geo-economics... regrettably, this region has been plunged into wars of geopolitics for over 70 years,” he said.

Mr Iqbal lamented that nothing could be provided to the masses during these wars.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2017