Ahsan Iqbal vows to wipe out menace of terrorism

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior and Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal on Monday re-affirmed the commitment to wipe out terrorism from the country, saying war on terror is still continuing to completely eradicate the menace.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of Pakistan''s first-ever National Center for Cyber Security here at Air University, he said terrorism had 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.

"We made the National Action Plan (NAP) and launched a full-fledged operation against terrorists in the country, which will continue till complete annihilation of terrorists and extremists," he said.

Ahsan Iqbal lauded the role of nation, Armed Forces, police and other law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in the war against terrorism and said, besides, sacrificing thousands of precious lives, the country''s economy also suffered big loss.

"Peace is very much important for development as is oxygen necessary for human life," he said and added that the societies having instability and insurgency could not meet the pace of progress.

" He said "We have to maintain unity and solidarity among our ranks to achieve the desired results.

" He said 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.

Ahsan 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.

He said "There is no country in the world that is free of the challenges and problems and every nation, when going through a development cycle, faces lot of challenges.

" He said "Pakistan is poised to takeoff and we should start to celebrate the success stories of our country.

" Ahsan Iqbal stressed the need to change 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 in future.

Pakistan is a story of successes and development which should be disseminated to the world to discard negative perception of the country, said Ahsan Iqbal, who narrowly escaped assassination bid and injured in Narowal gun attack some days ago was addressing the inauguration ceremony of National Center of Cyber Security here at Air University.

He said establishment of National Center for Cyber Security was his dream which had now been fulfilled.

He said before that, the government had also laid foundation of Center of Mathematical sciences at PIAS while center of excellence for artificial intelligence cyber security and robotics were also being established in the country to prepare it to cope with future demands and challenges.

For many years, the country had become weaker economically and plunged into darkness, he said.

Besides, investors were not investing in the country, he added.

He said it happened due to the disturbed security situation and weaker economic policies.

He said political stability was the basic requirement of economic development, therefore more focus should be given on the economic development of the country.

He said the 21st century was the century of economic development and only those nations will survive who will make achievements on the economic front, rather than on political or defense fronts.

Later, the minister inaugurated the center.

The centre is aimed at protecting Pakistan''s digital assets in cyber space, producing high quality workforce in cyber security and establishing Pakistan cyber security industry.