Prime Minister Imran has said that Pakistan cannot have national security until there is inclusive growth and equal human development.

Addressing the opening session of the Margalla Dialogue 21 with the theme “Breaking Past, Entering Future”, the PM said Pakistan's focus was on military power but national security is actually an all-encompassing thing, adding that no country could be secure where a small segment kept getting richer while others were left behind.

The PM said that unequal human development is one of the key contributors to violence in the country. He called upon the audience to highlight the issues of Pakistan's three-tiered education system.

Referring to English-medium, Urdu-medium and religious schools, he said that three education systems were running in parallel in Pakistan, adding that this has created distinctions.

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He said those at madrassahs are isolated in society as they are not given jobs, while those from Urdu-medium schools suffer from quality of education. Attributing these distinctions to lack of research in the country, the PM hope that more think tanks would be established in the country.

The PM further said that lack of research and think tanks have caused Pakistan to be highlighted negatively in its participation in the war on terror, adding that the country needs to define itself, and not rely on the West to do that for it.

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“Research leads to original thinking within a society. You have to define yourself instead of letting others define you,” he said.

The PM contended that there was a lack of think tanks in the rest of the Muslim world, saying Muslims in the West had to face hardships but there was no response from the Islamic world's leadership.

He said that atrocities were committed by India in the Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, regretting that there were no think tanks in the Muslim world that could project this issue.