ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage on Thursday said that the human development indicators plunge into a nosedive during dictatorship, whereas during the democratic era, they start showing upward trend. She said this while speaking at the three-day 20th Sustainable Development Conference held under the auspices of Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). The minister said, during dictatorships foreign funding comes in the country and the gross domestic product (GDP) also goes up, but the fruits of development do not reach the masses. She said that for the last four years the targets of sustainable development were being achieved with better results. She said that Pakistan was striving for sustainable development and the allocation of Rs 1 trillion in the budget for 2016-17 for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), which was the highest ever in the budgetary history of Pakistan, adequately reflected that commitment. She said that no worthwhile planning could be undertaken without the availability of authentic data and information. Marriyum said that the parliament had a key role in the sustainable development and Pakistan was the first country where a secretariat on sustainable development in the parliament was established through the efforts of Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, which was playing an active role in the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs). She informed the audience that after the 18th amendment some of the SDGS had been transferred to the provinces, where provincial task forces connected to the Sustainable Development Secretariat of the parliament were also adequately contributing to that effort. Marriyum said that when the millennium SDGS arrived, they also became a casualty of dictatorship. The minister congratulated the organisers for convening a conference on sustainable development like the previous years. She said that it was the best forum where representatives of the government, the stakeholders working for human development, media and international partners got together to find solutions to the confronting challenges. Marriyum also eulogised the services of Shahnaz Wazir Ali for the development sector. Published in Daily Times, December 7th 2017.