KARACHI, Dec 27: Speakers at the concluding session of a conference on “Emerging Challenges: Struggle for a Brighter Future” on Tuesday underlined the need for dialogue and consensus before enforcing policies aimed at bringing social or economic changes. They said that political will, correctness of basic details and data, holistic approaches in the planning stage, and attitude of minds based on dialogue not monologue were included among the keys to any successful changes in society and for generations to come.

Many a time, changes desired or based on nostalgias are perceived as threatening by the community and as such the end result remains in doldrums, remarked a few speakers.

The last session of the conference was dedicated to the Dr Eqbal Ahmad Memorial Lectures, wherein panelists spoke on the theme of “Education and Society”.

An industrialist, Amin Hashwani, said Pakistan was one nation but a divided society, which was due to the fact that citizens preferred to see themselves with multiple identities.

There were conflicts in society, which were needed to be addressed with the offering of multiple solutions, he added, suggesting that changes could be ensured by remaining relevant to the very common man, who found religion as a base for reformation.

Dr Junaid Ahmad, a consultant to the government of Pakistan and at present working on poverty reduction strategy said government policies were aimed at increasing growth and improving human resources and governance. He gave details of targets set under poverty reduction strategies and said that after evaluation of the existing strategies, new PRS would be placed for three years (2007-10).

The success of any strategy or policy lay in its strengthening, monitoring and implementation, he said adding that under the new PRS, about 6.97 million jobs would be created till 2010.

Dr Khawar Mehdi, a researcher, said youths could play a significant role in the transformation of society, provided they acted as a non-violent community and a disciplined one.

He stressed the need for giving real opportunities to youths and adults for being active and cognisant of the developments taking around them.

Naeem Sadiq, a consultant in the field of quality, safety and environmental management, discussed the core features of any natural or manmade disaster in the country.

Dr Kokab Farooq, a physician from Kansas City, USA, talked on public health problems, and said that in a situation when any perfect solution was unavailable for related problems, lessons should be learnt from established forums or what had been practiced earlier.

Planning and caring for the hygiene of our wards, the environment they get in their educational institutions, eating places or job places, state funding in the health sector and recognition of related issues and efforts by local government could be of great help in solving health problems.

Rear Admiral (Retd) Arshad Muneer said advancement had accelerated to such a point that a span of three decades could easily contain more developmental breakthroughs than a span of several hundred centuries.

Among others, APSENA President Farrukh Hussain, Executive Vice-President of APSENA Pak Div, Samir Hoodbhoy, also spoke.

Earlier, Dr Shaukat Hameed, Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, Nasser Ghazi and others spoke at a session dedicated to Dr Abdus Salam Memorial Lectures on “Technology Options for New Generations”.