Naqvi says system reset must stay inside Constitution

LAHORE: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday that his call for a system reset is meant to correct governance failures within the Constitution, not to derail democracy or replace the existing political structure.

He was speaking as chief guest at a National Policy Dialogue on Empowerment and Growth at the University of Management and Technology in Lahore on 31 October, according to Minute Mirror's report of the event.

Naqvi said the aim was to revive and improve institutions rather than dismantle them. He listed figures he described as the measure of the country's problems: about 55 per cent of Pakistanis without access to clean drinking water, roughly 20 million children out of school, malnutrition among children, and a backlog of nearly two million cases in the courts.

On proposals to create new provinces, Naqvi said any decision should reflect the wishes of the people rather than the preferences of political governments. He supported provincial status for Islamabad and argued that large provinces need more effective administrative arrangements. Creating new administrative units would not undermine the identity of existing provinces, he said, adding that officials based in Lahore could not manage every part of Punjab.

A business leader at the event, whom Minute Mirror's report did not name, presented a district-by-district account of industries and resources he said had fallen short of their potential.

He said Khairpur exports four containers of dates a day with little value addition, and that the same product returns to the market at much higher prices once processed, coated, packaged and branded. He named Shikarpur's pickle makers and Hyderabad's bangle manufacturers as sectors with room to expand abroad but without the investment and support to do so.

He pointed to agricultural opportunities in Nawabshah and to a wind corridor at Gharo with an estimated potential of 55,000 megawatts, and asked why those resources stay unused while Pakistan spends billions of dollars on imported oil. Thar's coal reserves and the country's coastal and marine resources were also on his list.

For Gilgit-Baltistan he cited gemstones, fruit production and hydropower, saying a large share of locally grown fruit goes to waste. He also described Chiniot's furniture industry, Wazirabad's cutlery sector, Gujranwala's electronics manufacturing and a declining textile industry in Faisalabad as businesses needing investment, modernisation and access to international markets.

He said Pakistan holds cotton, minerals, gold and other valuable resources yet continues to seek financial assistance from other countries.