Pakistan needs to stop relying on foreign aid: Ishaq Dar

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz senior leader senator Ishaq Dar has termed foreign aid a root cause of all the issues confronted to the country and said, "It is time to break the begging bowl and achieve self-reliance for getting independence in true sense".
Talking to media after the inauguration of a workshop here at University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Monday, Dar said Pakistan needs to stop relying on aid. "Refusing foreign aid is not an easy thing, but this is what every Pakistani wants," he said, adding: "The decision to give up foreign aid does not mean that relations with other countries should be impaired. Nevertheless, this decision is aimed at promotion of trade."
When asked about repercussions of refusing aid, Dar said that problems to be emerged as a result of disregarding foreign aid would only be transitory. He said he was confident that the decision taken by the most populated province of Pakistan, Punjab would prove to be a starting point of a national movement for economic independence, national sovereignty and security of the country.
He further said that Pakistan is fighting for its existence, therefore, the entire nation, especially the elites, would have to render sacrifices. "If we want to live with honour and dignity, we would have to revisit its priorities," he said, adding: "If the nation decides to depend on its own resources and work with sincerity and commitment, Pakistan could also achieve the goal of self-reliance," he said.
Dar further said that Pakistan has no dearth of resources. It is unfortunate that only 9 percent of our GDP comes from taxes which should be increased to at least 15 percent, he said, adding "After the decision not to take foreign aid, measures would have to be adopted for curtailing unnecessary expenditures and generation of additional resources. This should also be reflected in upcoming budget."
Regarding Abbottabad incident, he said this incident would help strengthen the institutions, which could not be put on right path without introducing reforms. About taking loans from donors, Dar said that Pakistan being member of United Nations is fully authorised to get loans as it is not a favour from any body. "It is unfortunate that rulers used to get loans for meeting expenditures of their luxuries. Had amount of foreign loans was spent on producing electricity and other developmental activities, the country were on path of progress and development.
Earlier, addressing the participants of the 4-day workshop, organised by UHS in collaboration with University of Liverpool, UK, Ishaq Dar said that the two institutions would not only benefit research work but would also help to give our curriculum an international perspective apart from enhancing our students' and faculty's cultural understanding through working alongside.
Dar further said that health and education are top most priorities of the present leadership of Punjab. There has been an unprecedented increase in health budget from Rs 13 billion to 38 billion in the last three years, he added. "Regularisation of the services of 6,000 doctors working on contract for the last 12 years, establishment of four new medical colleges and increase of 950 MBBS seats in medical colleges, provision of Mobile Health Units in rural areas, availability of free medicines, renal dialysis and complete air-conditioning of hospitals are some of the initiatives present government of Mian Shahbaz Sharif have taken to provide proper health care facilities to the people of the Punjab," he said.
In his welcome address, UHS vice-chancellor Professor Malik Hussain Mubbashar said that teachers in medical colleges needed to change their own beliefs, behaviour, perception and assumptions about learning and teaching to provide quality medical education. He said learning in this digital age would also require teachers to explore how best to exploit technology to further enhance the educational environment for students.
Professor Mubbashar further said both universities had a strong commitment to enhancing student-centred learning and teaching experience. UHS Director Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) Professor Arif Rashid Khawaja said that UHS has been awarded the prestigious 'Inspire' grant by the British Council for supporting joint academic and research programmes with University of Liverpool, UK.
He said that UHS project has been selected as one of the 17 successful awards out of 123 applications received from both Pakistan and UK. The proposal was mutually selected and approved by both British Council and Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan, after detailed evaluation process.
University of Liverpool's Director Center of Life Long Learning, Professor Dr Ian Willis said that under the project, UHS and Liverpool University would organise workshops and staff exchanges in order to support a student-centred approach to medical education and to identify appropriate changes in assessment approaches. One important component is to support PhD applicants of high quality at the University of Health Sciences, he added. Dr Janet Strivens, Co-Director of the Postgraduate Diploma/Masters Programme, University of Liverpool, UK also spoke.