KARACHI - Former Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Dr Ishrat Hussain has said that after the Second World War, economic growth became the prime consideration for the developing nations.
Delivering a lecture on ‘Pakistan and The Challenge of Human Security’, organised by Distinguished Lecture Series Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Karachi on Thursday, he said, “Poverty in the world has decreased to 15 percent from 26 percent in the last 25 years; still social inequalities persist even in US and Europe.”
He noted reduction in poverty, gender equality, health care and equal education opportunities were the main postulates of human development.
“Pakistan ranks 144th, out of 188 countries, in the Human Development Index; only 7 percent of the youth are able to pursue graduate studies,” the former governor said, adding, “Clean drinking water is pivotal for ensuring human security as far as health is concerned because health is the factor on which economic security depends.” Hussain informed that global temperatures had increased by 1 degree, and were expected to go up by 2 degrees further, if we continued to burn fossil fuel on regular basis. “It will be dangerous for the generations to come,” he warned.
“We need to produce electricity from solar, wind and biomass means, which would be cheap and environment friendly,” Hussain suggested.
He lamented that more than 50 percent of females, who became MBBS doctors, left the profession and instead became housewives after marriage, which, he termed a great dishonesty and disservice to the nation.   “We must make our diversity our strength, not a means to divide the nation,” he asserted. He asked the Pakistani youth to become politically active and vote in every elections.
“We must promote the culture of scientific and intellective discourse and discussion. We have laws for almost everything, but there is no implementation,” the former SBP governor observed. He added the use of force was not an option in the contemporary world to influence public opinion or bring political change.
Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, Karachi University Dr Moonis Ahmar called upon the youth to develop reading habits and termed it vital for developing leadership skills. “We must adopt an enlightened approach towards our contemporary societal issues,” he said, adding, “Social and political change could be brought only through education.”
Moonis added mass transit projects like Metro Bus must not be criticised, saying, “these contribute to human development in terms of transportation.”