‘Politicians must not spread hate, extremism’
islamabad — Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday urged political leadership not to spread hate and extremism in the upcoming general election and focus on their manifesto to ensure a peaceful election.
Talking to the media, after inaugurating the Citizen Service Centre of Islamabad Police, the minister said that it was responsibility of the political leadership to maintain political stability in the country.
Ahsan said joint efforts are needed to root out extremism from the country, adding, that “I was also attacked on May 6 due to this chain of extremism.”
“We have divided Pakistan of Quaid-e-Azam into different sections and joint efforts are required to address the issues of the terrorism and extremism,” the minister added.
He said it was the responsibility of the state to punish or reward, adding that after the terrorism incident “I am committed to work for promotion of love and brotherhood”.
To a question about the performance of the government, the minister said the government had presented a better Pakistan to the masses as compared to that of 2013.
Ahsan said the government has almost eliminated the menace of terrorism from the country with the help of operation Zarb-e-Azb and Raad-ul-Fasaad and there was hardly a single minor terrorist incident in a month.
The minister said the country’s economic growth has increased from 3 per cent to 6 per cent due to the concrete steps of the present government, adding, improvements in macroeconomic indicators could be seen in all the fields.
He said that in 2013, the masses were facing 18 to 20 hours of power cuts but present government has added 10,000 megawatt electricity in the national grid from its own resources. The minister said that no government had ever generated such a huge amount of electricity in the history of the country.
“The present government has fulfilled the promise of zero loadshedding in the country but there is dire need to improve the transmission and distribution system,” the minister said.