A panel discussion on "growth, poverty reduction and food security" was held here at the Government College University Lahore.

Punjab Finance Minister Makhdum Hashim Jawan Bakht chaired the discussion held in light of the current provincial budget, two vice-chancellors Prof. Dr Sarfraz Khurshid, and Prof. Dr Rafu-i-Azam and Member Education P&D Khalid Sultan also participated in the debate.

GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr Asghar Zaidi moderated the panel discussion, saying that policymaking without detailed analysis never provides desired results, so they had started a movement to initiate much-needed productive debates among key experts, academics and top-level policymakers on social and economic issues.

In his keynote address, eminent development economist Prof. Dr Sohail Jahangir Malik said the actual poverty is even much higher than it exists in figure, and the country’s economy has been severely constrained in its ability to provide inclusive growth due to inequitable distribution of resources, disparities across people, gender and regions, rampant corruption, rapidly growing population, debt management, energy and water crisis, decayed institutional structures, natural calamities, war on terror, and decades of poor governance and economic mismanagement.

He suggested that an education and social entrepreneurship program using rural unemployed educated youth could quickly kick-start economic growth by building the disconnected, weak or absent linkages.

Punjab Finance Minister Makhdum Hashim Jawan Bakht said that it’s incorrect to attach progress and development to the construction of buildings as for inclusive human development, service delivery expenditures also play a vital role.

The minister said they had focused on real development instead of optics like the Orange Train. He added that the Punjab government this year would bear a debt burden of 86 billion rupees to provide road infrastructure, clean drink water and drainage and sewerage systems to people in 16 underprivileged districts of Punjab.

The minister revealed that the government is providing rupees 85 billion subsidies on wheat but from the next, they will be moving from overall subsidy to target subsidy. He said ‘atta” is available to five-star hotels at the subsidised rate which is not right.

Punjab Agriculture Minister Hussain Jehanian Gardezi claimed that the province had harvested 1.5m tonnes more wheat this season than last year. He said the boost in the agriculture economy would reduce poverty and provide food security.

Dr Shujaat Ali, a former federal secretary, also participated in the panel discussion.

Later, the Hashim Jawan Bakht along with Vice Chancellor Prof. Zaidi inaugurated the recently-renovated championship squash court, and planted at tree at the University’s Bukhari Lawns.

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