ISLAMABAD Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali, Advisor to Prime Minister on Education, said on Tuesday that the judiciary will have to behave with maturity and also recognise the right of the executive to rule. There is judicial outreach in the courts decision and if this outreach continues, it may prove dangerous for the country, he warned. The governments performance in all the three elements of a successful state national security, internal stability and economic security had been satisfactory in the year 2009. While Ahsan Iqbal, Secretary Information PML-N, said that the government has been left with a little time to perform on the issues like formation of an independent accountability body and good governance. He alleged that the government also failed on the economic front during the year 2009 as it had been depending on foreign loans instead of attracting foreign investors. The people have been suffering a lot as they had to face severe problems in having food items including sugar, rice, flour at affordable prices, besides facing the energy crisis, he said. They were addressing in a seminar on Look-Back Year 2009: What It Meant for Pakistan. Speeches were also delivered by a panel of distinguished representatives from government, opposition, intelligentsia and the civil society in the said seminar organisby Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS). Advisor to PM claimed, We got economic stability in 2009 by halting slide of the rupee and controlling inflation. And the steps like successful Swat operation, NFC Award, Balochistan package and Gilgit-Blatistan elections have brought some internal stability to the country. The year 2009 will be remembered for judicial independence, freedom of expression as well as for shattering of the myths around the Taliban. Everybody realises today that militants were not our heroes, and they had to be dealt with an iron hand to reverse the tide of the militants, he added. Speaking in the seminar, Ahsan Iqbal, Secretary Information PML-N, said that the government has been left with a little time to perform on the issues like 17th amendment, formation of an independent accountability body and good governance. If the government fails to implement the CoD, the people will lose patience and start demanding change, he said adding, the government will have to clear the NRO-affected ministers from its ranks if it wants to complete the term. While expressing satisfaction over the active role being played by the state institutions, Lt Gen (Retd) Talat Masood, defense analyst, emphasised the need for a mature behaviour by the institutions. We are in a state of flux, and if the institutions do not demonstrate maturity, the system in the country can be undermined, Gen Talat warned. He said that the space created by the military operation in the troubled areas needs to be exploited by the political leadership aptly by introducing economic, social and political reforms there for taking the people of the areas along. The FATA will have to be brought to the mainstream if we want to resolve the issue of militancy there, and the parliament must do work on giving it a clear status, he proposed. In his speech in the seminar, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director PILDAT, claimed that at present, Pakistan has been the most democratic during its 62 years of existence for having a fairly fair and free elections in February 2008, the free media, independent judiciary and vibrant and active social society organisations including NGOs, bar association, press clubs, trade unions and obviously the people in the street. All these things had never been existing together in Pakistan, and thus, the country becomes most democratic in its history, he said. Ahmed Bilal said that the parliament too performed reasonably well as the Prime Minister attended parliaments sessions and that 43 per cent standing committees in the National Assembly and 31 per cent standing committees in the Senate are being headed by the opposition. He however, lamented the standing committees on Defence and Foreign Relations are least active, and the parliamentarians too have little interest in the parliaments proceedings. He proposed that the budget should be properly debated in the parliament and the complete details of the defence budget should be brought to the parliament. Wazir Jogezai, former Deputy Speaker National Assembly, who was chairing the seminar, said that the year 2009 is different from previous one in the sense that the NFC Award was approved in it, which symbolises unity among the federating units. He emphasised the people to strengthen the major political parties in all the provinces particularly in Balochistan so that democracy could get strengthened in the country.