islamabad - A book titled “Transforming Villages” written by Javed Ahmad Malik was launched at Iqbal International Institute for Research and Development (IRD) of International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI). The author, Javed Ahmed Malik in the book elaborated “how grassroots democracy can end rural poverty at a rapid pace”. The launching ceremony was attended by Dr Munir Vice President Sharia department of IIUI, Executive Director IRD Dr Husnul Amin, Head of Political Science IIUI Dr Noor Fatima and head of Sociology department IIUI Dr Hazir Ullah.

Javed Malik had also been a student of IIUI, while speaking on the occasion he said that the number of poor people in Pakistan is 80 million and out of this total number, seventy million were living in villages. Since last 70 years no government succeeded to overcome poverty in the country, he added. Currently, he said that our system is supporting status quo as it was introduced by the British to rule the poor.

He said the incoming government is in the favour of an equal system across the country but it will have to face innumerable challenges in this regard. “In the book, I took help from Chinese, Korean models of development to curb poverty,” he informed.  Javed said until you could not improve your delivery structure, development is impossible in the country. “The country has more than 60 percent of youth and we do not have any plan to absorb them in jobs, the country could face various hurdles in restoring law and order situation,” he said. “We need to engage our youth so that they could play their role in socio-economic development of the country rather than falling in the hands of terrorists,” he added. Political Analyst Dr Noor Fatima, while speaking on the occasion said the concept of transformation of villages is a very interesting issue which has been highlighted by the author. She said that the concept started in 1960 during the era of green Pakistan.

Vice President Sharia Department of IIUI congratulated Javed Malik for his efforts to present a resolution for development through his book. He said that Javed has highlighted genuine and true problems and their resolutions in his book “Transforming Villages”. At the end, Executive Director IRD, Dr Husnul Amin said “We will celebrate the book at a major level and will try to make the book a part of political discussion and for further deliberations in universities.” IRD has developed a big network of book delivery across the world, he said adding,” We will build relations with local major book sellers and shops for delivery of books written by institute.”