PRESIDENT Arif Alvi has really proved himself as the personality at the top echelon having the full understanding and realization of the multifaceted problems faced by the country and he continues to articulate his vision to address them in a very articulate and unambiguous manner.
During an exclusive interview with this paper encompassing issues ranging from domestic to international levels, he was very candid and straightforward and in his conversation he appeared to be very optimistic about the bright future of the country when he stated that Pakistan will emerge as an international geo- strategic economic hub as a result of multibillion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. Expressing satisfaction over the progress on the corridor project, the President very rightly pointed out that Gwadar, being the shortest route for China to sea, offers excellent connectivity with the Central Asian countries and the rest of the world. The very words of President Alvi really show how much significance the government is giving to the CPEC project which indeed has the potential to address the economic woes of the country and take it towards self-reliance in different fields including the agriculture and industrial sectors. What actually is required now is to further enhance the level of engagement with the Chinese friends at different levels to fast track the implementation of the second phase of CPEC to trigger economic activity in the country. The President was also very specific with regards to the successes achieved by Pakistan in fight against Covid-19. Whilst the present government really deserves applause for pursuing a prudent policy to tackle the pandemic, it will be unfair not to recognize the efforts of President Arif Alvi who invited religious scholars to presidency and developed consensus vis-à-vis SOPs for mosques during Ramadan-ul-Mubarak. This really helped check the spread of the contagion.
Currently our people are greatly suffering because of soaring prices and the President Arif Alvi, during the interview, also provided the solutions saying he has suggested the government to build up extra stocks of wheat and food items to discourage hoarding in the country. He said the handling of price hike is a question of management rather than corruption or shortage. The government must give ears to such saner voices in order to provide much needed relief to the common man. When his attention was drawn towards the opposition parties protest campaign, the President said a smearing campaign has unfortunately been launched against the superior judiciary and the defence forces of Pakistan. He said he believes in his impartial role but cannot ignore the national interests, adding all the institutions are on the same page and any attempt to create misunderstanding among them is bound to fail. There is no denying the fact that the enemy is out to stoke chaos and anarchy in the country and it is only through unity in our ranks that we can foil its sordid designs. We are confident President Alvi will continue to play his positive role in this regard in the best national interest.
