Government has political will to face challenges: Zardari

President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday said that the government has the political will and determination to lead the country to face challenges and embark upon the path of development, progress and prosperity. Speaking to the participants of 94 National Management Course at Awan-e-Sadr, the president said Pakistan faces many challenges but "Allah Almighty has blessed us with potential and ability to tackle them as we have a vibrant society to face these challenges.
"We have the political will to face these challenges and terrorism in Swat and Malakand by implementing this will," the president said and expressed the confidence that the government would also succeed in overcoming economic challenges.
"Democracy is the only way for taking the country forward in the right direction and today the political minds have attained maturity. He said the democracy is passing through an evolutionary process and the time is not far off when Pakistan will become a strong democracy," he added. The President highlighted the achievements of the government, saying that these were attained by following the vision of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.
He said, "we are pursuing the policy of reconciliation and by the grace of Allah Almighty have been successful in tackling a number of issues." Answering a question, the president said there was no clash of institutions in Pakistan. "There is a friendly atmosphere in which every institution is working smoothly," he added.
He disagreed with the term judicial activism and said this situation had actually strengthened democracy. He said democracy was an evolutionary process and the country was passing through it. President Asif Ali Zardari said that the government had increased the salaries of judges manifold to attract bright minds towards the judiciary.
To a question about challenging dictatorship in the future, the President said " we need to strengthen democracy for this purpose." He said the political forces would have to work with full ownership to strengthen democracy. He said that they believed in letting others live and that would help stop the dictatorship.
To a question regarding eradicating provincialism, the president said that democracy provided the way for bringing closer all the political forces and emerging of a political consensus on all issues. "You cannot stop anything by force. Democracy can ensure containment of provincialism. We all have to work and remove the sense of deprivation and the government has already initiated a process in this regard by launching the "Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan," he added.
About extending the Political Parties Act to FATA, the president said all the political parties agreed on bringing the tribal areas to national political system and added, "we now need a right time for doing it". He said the PPP had initiated this process in FATA by awarding tickets to candidates of the area.
To a question about the demand for setting up new provinces, the president said based on his experience, he had opposed this but the wishes of the people cannot be ignored. He said, "we are bound to accept the opinion of the people just we have done in the case of renaming NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa."
The president urged the participants that as public servants belonging to different groups they had an important role to play in formulation and implementation of public policies. He asked them to seek new avenues in formation of public policies.
"I believe that public private partnership is the best example for economic development. As civil servants responsible for implementing policies it is your responsibility to implement the decisions with sincerity and speed," the president said. Quoting a quote from the Quaid-e-Azam address to Gazetted Officers of Chittagong on 25th March, 1948, which, the president said in his view, were as true and relevant today as they were then. These words of the Quaid provide you the foundation on which the structure of public service is founded, the president said.-PR