National security depends on economic security: Ahsan

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal Monday inaugurated Pakistan's first-ever National Center for Cyber Security at Air University with an aim to become a leading hub of innovation and scientific research to develop tools and technology to protect the country's cyber space. Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Iqbal said that peace, stability and continuity of policies are the key elements and of vital importance to achieve fast paced economic development and prosperity. The national security depends on economic security rather than weapons, he added.
The interior minister said that backbone of terrorism has been broken and the war on terror is still continuing to completely eradicate this menace. "We have to maintain unity and solidarity among our ranks to achieve the desired results," he added. Terrorism has been curtailed to a large extent in 2018 as compared to five years back, and people are now witnessing that peace has been restored in the country.
The federal minister said that some elements are spreading violence and attempting to make country hostage to their violent agendas but these elements will not succeed in their nefarious designs. He said there is no country in the world that is free of challenges and problems, adding that every nation when goes through a development cycle faces a lot of challenges. Pakistan is poised to takeoff and "we should start to celebrate the success stories of our country," he added.
The minister stressed the need for changing mindset on national level in a bid to discard negative perception about the country and called upon the nation to prepare itself for new challenges of future.Pakistan is a story of success and development which should be disseminated to the world to discard negative perception of the country, the minister added. He said that GDP growth has reached almost 6 percent compared to around 3 percent in 2013. Furthermore, investors were shifting from the country, but due to improved security situations the confidence of the investors has been restored, he said.
He said that Pakistan was far behind of the other regional countries in adopting 2G technology, but the country has not only surpassed them in 3G and 4G but would be among the top countries to go for 5G once it is commercially available as all the preparations have been put in place in this regard.
He said that the establishment of National Center for Cyber Security was his dream which has now been fulfilled. Before this the government had also laid foundation of Center of Mathematical Sciences at PIAS while centers of excellence for artificial intelligence, cyber security and robotics were also being established in the country to prepare the nation to cope with future demands and challenges.
The minister said that Pakistanis can show to the world that they can make a success story. Referring to the resources available to Pakistan at the time of its creation, he said that the country had no resources at the time of its inception but today "we are producing many things including JF-17 thunder aircraft." He said that Pakistan was one of the first countries to introduce fiber optic in the South Asia.
He said Pakistan in 2013 was being declared as a dangerous country but today the country is being declared as an emerging economy of Asia due to prudent economic policies of the incumbent government. The minister further said that the world renowned economic institutions are also acknowledging the economic achievements of Pakistan. The federal minister said that the issue of load-shedding has considerably been overcome and the government added 10,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid during the last four years compared to 18,000MW during the early 66 years. Interestingly, the light went off during the minister's speech.
He said that Karachi is regaining its lost peace and all the things are becoming better gradually. Addressing on the occasion, Vice Chancellor of Air University AVM (retd) Faaiz Amir said that cyber threats come from all sides, adding, "We have to protect our cyber space." All the systems and governments would be connected with internet but it is also bringing some challenges and they need to have protection measures in place to cope with such challenges. He further said that cyber threats have been more strategic and the National Cyber Center would play a vital role in this regard.
The National Center will comprise a number of affiliated labs at various universities, including Air University Islamabad, Bahria University Islamabad, Lahore University of Management Sciences(LUMS), National University of Science & Technology (NUST), Information Technology University (ITU) Lahore, NED University Karachi, Pakistan Institute of Engineering & Applied Sciences (PIEAS), University of Peshawar, University of Engineering & Technology Peshawar, University of Technology Nowshera, University of Engineering & Technology Lahore, and University of Engineering & Technology Taxila, across the country with the headquarter located at Air University Islamabad.