Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal has asked the media to take a more active role in highlighting key national challenges, keeping institutions answerable, and placing development priorities at the centre of public debate. He made the remarks on Friday while addressing the Media Dialogue on Effective Development Communication, as reported by APP. In his view, media coverage sets national priorities and draws public attention, and issues that never enter public discussion rarely get the attention needed to resolve them. He summed up the point by saying that what is asked gets done, and what is not asked does not.
The minister urged journalists to put sustained scrutiny on slow progress in literacy, population growth, early childhood development, limited access to higher education, weak exports, and leakages in public development spending. On demographics, he said Pakistan is heading towards rapid population growth while early childhood education and care remain neglected, even though around 90 percent of cognitive abilities develop in the first five years of life. He said investing in the early development of children is vital for a capable and productive next generation. On exports, he said economic sovereignty will remain at risk unless exports rise substantially, and he set a target of 100 billion dollars in exports by 2035 to reduce reliance on the International Monetary Fund and external financing. Comparing Pakistan with Vietnam, he said the two countries exported 6 billion dollars and 2.5 billion dollars respectively in 1990, but Vietnam exports have since climbed to 475 billion dollars while Pakistan stands at around 40 billion dollars.
On education, Ahsan Iqbal said only 13 percent of Pakistani youth have access to higher education, compared with 30 percent in a neighbouring country, 25 percent in Bangladesh, and 60 percent in China, and called for wider debate on human capital development. Turning to governance, he said systemic leakages and commissions in development spending erode the value of public money, and that every rupee allocated to a project should deliver its intended benefit. He said the Planning Ministry has put development projects online and set up a public helpline to report misuse of resources, but stressed that independent media scrutiny is just as important. Every development project, he said, has a story that does not end with the inauguration but begins with its outcomes, and he asked journalists to check whether schools are delivering quality education and whether university campuses and laboratories are serving their purpose.
The minister also asked the media to give more attention to preventive healthcare, tobacco use, passive smoking, and food adulteration, citing a recent survey in which nearly half of the tested samples of packaged milk and ghee failed to meet prescribed standards. He said development communication should go beyond relaying official statements and ceremonies to examine outcomes, expose shortcomings, and encourage behavioural change. Bringing development issues into mainstream debate, together with meaningful media engagement and public participation, can give the development journey the push it needs, he added.
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