Vision of PM

PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday called for concerted national efforts to transform Pakistan into an economic power, urging the same level of dedication and resilience that enabled the country to achieve its status as a responsible nuclear state. In his televised opening remarks at the meeting of the Federal Cabinet, he highlighted that the Government’s economic team had made collective efforts over the past two years, which were coming to fruition, ensuring stability and preventing the need for rationing. Looking ahead to the upcoming Yaum-e-Takbeer on May 28, the Premier emphasized that the nation remembered that day as the moment Pakistan achieved an impregnable defence in 1998. He underscored that Pakistan’s nuclear assets were strictly for deterrence and defence, not offense that has earned the country global recognition as a responsible nuclear state. Pakistan’s defence is invincible mainly because of the wise and visionary decision taken by the then Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, contribution made by successive civil and military governments to acquire nuclear technology at all costs and services rendered by legendary scientist Dr. A.Q. Khan and thousands of scientists and engineers of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). Pakistan faced discriminatory sanctions on economic and military cooperation and consistent propaganda campaigns launched by vested interests against its nuclear programme and the nature of the malicious propaganda can be gauged from the fact that Pakistan’s nuclear bomb was described as ‘Islamic bomb’ in an effort to give religious dimensions to a programme that was motivated by the desire to exploit technology to bolster national defence. History bears testimony to the fact that Pakistan repeatedly proposed ideas to make South Asia a nuclear free zone but these could not take practical shape due to cold-shouldering of India, which had both regional and global ambitions in acquiring nuclear technology. The decision to