LAHORE: Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday that true freedom was not possible in the absence of economic freedom. He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the book ‘Governing the Ungovernable’ written by former State Bank Governor Dr Ashrat Hussain. “We have to move forward by relying on our own resources and to stand on our feet to fulfill the goals of establishment of Pakistan and this destination cannot be achieved by tactics but practical hard work and collective efforts. Such an economic and social justice system where there is equal opportunity to progress, fair distribution of resources, and no one should be worried for basic facilities is essential for our progress,” he added. The CM said that in order to bring peace and prosperity to the country and to replace despair with happiness, there was a dire need to diminish the gap between the rich and poor. “We have to make the 21 million people prosperous as per interpretation of the dream of Quaid-e-Azam and Iqbal which is the only way left with us to stop the bloody revolution in the country,” he said. Addressing the function, CM said that participation in the book launching ceremony was an honor and matter of immense pleasure to him. “Dr Ishrat has written a wonderful book on the situation, issues and challenges our country is confronting. In 1990s, Pakistan was ahead of many neighboring countries in terms of economic growth. South Korea has made progress by adopting our five-year development plan. India, Bangladesh and China are far ahead of us today. We have to figure out the reason that despite having the same conditions how these countries have gone ahead of Pakistan. Corruption cases have come out in India, Bangladesh and other countries like Pakistan, but unfortunately only Pakistan is lagging behind on the road of progress despite having a situation. It is evident that economically strong nations are respected in the world, while weak nations always get dictation. Standard human resource is necessary to achieve development goals and objectives can be achieved only through resource development, effective planning and its implementation. Effective system of check and balance is needed in the politicians, bureaucracy and all institutions for the rapid development and system can be strengthened economically by opting across the board accountability,” he said. The CM said that undeniably development process could be expedited by transferring the powers to the lower level and local bodies could play an effective role in this regard. “No heed was paid to the annual audit of these institutes during the dictatorship era of Musharraf. However, the present government has taken great steps to strengthen and bring transparency in the local bodies,” he said. The CM said that Punjab government had also focused on quality human resources and promoted financial discipline as well as transparency in the province. “We can attain our destination if we will move forward with firm beliefs, strong determination and hard work. The dream of ruling the hearts of people without spending resources for their welfare honestly is nothing more than living in the fool’s paradise. Such a country was not the dream of Quaid and Iqbal. There are separate rules for the rich and poor. The rich enjoy every blessing and have access to justice but poor are deprived of it. The Punjab government has taken unprecedented measures to shrink the differences between rich and the poor by fair distribution of resources. In addition to it, we have completed all development projects including energy projects with transparency and progressive models have been set up by saving billions of rupees in development projects,” he said. He said that the principles of integrity, hard work and transparency would have to be part of our life for rapid growth. “The way all political parties, military governments and the entire nation have made Pakistan a nuclear force, in the same way with collectively efforts we have to strengthen Pakistan economically. It is never too late and if we will learn from our mistakes and move ahead, we will surely get our destination,” he said. Addressing the function, Dr Ishrat Hussain said that Shehbaz Sharif had improved the system through his good governance and the measures he had taken for the development of the province were appreciable. “In-fact, it can be said that it is the good performance of Shehbaz Sharif that brought victory to the ruling party in the 2013 elections,” he said. Published in Daily Times, February 18th 2018.