Futile to woo investors until terrorism, corruption eliminated from Pakistan: Shahbaz

London, July 7ANI): At a time when the Pakistan Government has been raising the 'trade, not aid' slogan at international platforms, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that it is futile to woo investors until corruption and terrorism is eradicated from the country.

Shahbaz told a gathering of mainly British Pakistani entrepreneurs in London that it was pointless to invite expatriate Pakistanis and others to invest in Pakistan at a time of great insecurity and economic uncertainty and when corruption was rampant under the watch of the federal government.

"No meaningful investment will come to Pakistan unless we eradicate terrorism; that's a harsh truth and I am not living in a fool's paradise. How do we expect foreign investment when Pakistan is not in peace and tranquillity?" The News quoted Shahbaz, as questioning.

Pakistan's number one agenda should be beating terrorism, he added.

Answering the questions of expatriate Pakistanis, Shahbaz acknowledged that the Pakistani bureaucracy was inefficient and that all governments, whether military and civilian, had allowed corruption to grow and caused political and administrative deterioration.

"The bureaucracy is inefficient and doesn't have the capacity to take up projects in the national interest and dither for one reason or another," he said. "The frustrations of overseas Pakistanis are genuine and I promise that I am working whole heartedly to resolve their problems."

Shahbaz expressed his disappointment over the current state of affairs in Pakistan and said that the country has fallen far behind other countries that had gained independence much after Pakistan.

"I am ashamed and embarrassed to put before you these hard facts, but I have to speak the truth. What is happening must not and shall not be allowed to continue, and we have to take charge of the situation," he added. (ANI)