Pakistan lost over 80,000 lives in fight against terrorism: PM

By Mumtaz Hussain 

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan has fought the menace of terrorism for decades and in the process lost over 80,000 lives of its civilians and security forces.

The prime minister was addressing “SDG Moment 2024 Meeting” on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly Session here.

He said that since 9/11 the worst terrorism-hit country was Pakistan. We have continued fighting terrorism and in the struggle have lost over 150 billion dollars so far, and are still working to eliminate the menace, he added.

The Prime Minister also highlighted other issues Pakistan had been facing, including climate change crisis, that has cost the country over 30 billions of dollars in the form of the devastating floods in 2022 alone.

The prime minister added that though developed and rich countries were responsible for emissions, the developing nations were facing the brunt of the climate change disasters.

He said that developed countries should take responsibility help nations faced with the impacts of climate change.

Despite all these issues and crises, he added, Pakistan had continued efforts to put the country on the track of development through the promotion of education.

He said that there were about 25 million out of if school children in his country and his government had declared an education emergency to cope with the situation on a priority basis.

The prime minister said that initiatives had been taken to improve education sector that included the establishment of Punjab Educational Endowment Fund, the largest program of its kind in South Asia. This program has benefited hundreds of thousands of students from marginalized section of society, he added.