ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has underscored the need for innovation and reality in research to put forward a progressive and realistic face of Pakistan.

He was speaking at the Margalla Dialogue, 2021. The theme of the dialogue is, “Breaking past, entering future.”

This is the second series of dialogue under the aegis of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) under the leadership of the National Security Division.

The prime minister said that national security is all about human security in the changing environs, and it is not merely a military subject.

“The national security is directly related to inclusive growth, and disparity in development leads to a sense of neglect,” he said.

“This is where we had been lacking in research and subsequently unable to build a narrative of our own,” he said and called for strengthening national security through an indigenous course of action by exploring the tangibles of the society.

The prime minister quoting from Asian Miracle, a famous publication of yester-decades, said that Pakistan was supposed to become “the “California of Asia”, but unfortunately it nosedived and lost its economic clout.

He regretted that the policies of the past, especially appeasing the powerful, and the absence of rule of law are behind the decay.

Neither could the rich civilisational credentials evolve, nor merit flourish to attain social mobility, he said and stressed that corruption is a symptom of no recourse to the rule of law, and this is where “we need to focus our research and studies”.

He was categorical in saying that original research is needed and the convention of relying on doctored synopsis from the west should come to an end.

Pointing out Afghanistan, the prime minister said Pakistan is the biggest victim in the decades-long civil strife, and had to bear the collateral damage.

“Yet we were blamed for double standards, and this is all owing to our policy of appeasement,” he added.

The miniscule aid that came our way was nothing, compared with the sacrifices and services that Pakistan had rendered, he added.

“More than 80,000 casualties, displacement of 40 million people and a loss of around $100 billion. This is what we had to pay and yet Pakistan was blamed for all that went wrong,” the prime minister said.

He also hinted at pro- and anti-US lobbies in Pakistan who did a great injustice to the country, and its narrative was defaced.

The premier also talked about Islamophobia and said that “it is quite unfortunate that the great religion was maligned”, whereas there are radicals in every society and religion. “This demeaning propaganda has an adverse impact on the overseas Pakistanis, too,” he added.

PM Imran Khan admitted that there are extremists, liberals and moderates everywhere, and so do in Islam and Pakistan. Narrating the example of Britain, he said, there is no dearth of people who are racist, but the entire British society cannot be lambasted for being racist. “So is the case of Muslim societies,” he said.

The prime minister regretted that the world media and public opinion is not castigating India on its fascist policies, and pointed out at the excesses being committed in the Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir.

Underscoring the merits of Pakistani society, Prime Minister Imran Khan said: “Pakistanis are generous, hospitable and compassionate. But there are challenges too, and we too have our extremes, and it would be unjust to blame the entire society and the nation for it.”

The need of the hour is to “define ourselves” and undertake genuine research to portray the true and real face of an enterprising and emerging Pakistan.

Earlier, National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf said that IPRI is doing a commendable job, and appreciated that the think tank is ranked 74th in the world.

He called for portraying and narrating the real story of Pakistan through data-centric original research, in an attempt to negate the malicious propaganda against it. Dr Moeed Yusuf was pleased that IPRI and many other think tanks under the NSD are doing a great job.

A book cataloguing Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan since September 11, 2001, was also presented to the prime minister on behalf of IPRI.

IPRI acting president Brig Raashid Wali Janjua (Retd) welcomed the prime minister, and expressed his pleasure that the initiative of Margalla Dialogue undertaken by Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2019, is successfully in the second leg of its innovation.

“We are living in a world of ideas and innovation, and substantive narratives can only be built through primary and exclusive research,” he added.

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