Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has said that peace and stability are important for the development of the country. Addressing a ceremony organized on the occasion of World Hepatitis C Eradication Awareness Day at PKLI on Monday, he said the country was facing a critical situation and it was not possible to put the country on the path to development with five years of musical chairs. “For sustained development, continuous work must be done on ten-year planning. When we assumed office, the country was facing a default but we have put the economy back on track and if given another chance, the PML-N will continue its plans to make the country an Asian Tiger.” Ahsan said, “If you look at the history of fifty years of Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, China and Turkey, there is peace, stability and continuity of policies in development and we will have to get rid of T20 matches in the political field”. The minister said that when the country was recovering and heading towards prosperity, a smart person was brought in, which made the state miserable. “A clumsy person ruined the national economy. If someone says that a sick person could be treated by a smart doctor of Gulab Devi instead of a specialist doctor of PKLI, then the patient would never recover.” He said that under the leadership of Shehbaz Sharif, the government had tried to fix the economy by taking “tough” decisions in fourteen months. “We tried to change the direction of Pakistan. People were betting that Pakistan would default in two or four weeks but now the world’s point of view about our economy has changed,” he added. Talking about health and education, Ahsan said, “The population rate in Pakistan has increased from 2.3% to 2.8% and diabetes and hepatitis have become major diseases. If provincial and federal governments contribute Rs34 billion, hepatitis can be eliminated forever in three years.” Dr. Saeed Akhtar, chairman of the board of governors PKLI, said that eradication of hepatitis was possible if a concerted effort was made.