He was looking fresh and was in a jocular mood for the whole time he spent with the press.
Dr Husain acknowledged the role of media by saying that it could help in framing the policies of the government through its persistent coverage and watching the country's political scenario.
He advised the media to avoid negativism and cynicism and to adopt a matter of fact approach towards society and the government. He said that if the policy is right it should have the consensus of the press and it should only be criticised if there are some hiccups in its implementation.
He rated Pakistan's media as one of the best in the region, "as there is no towing of party line" in the media. He gave the example of India where media usually are bound to party loyalties and hence lose their journalistic punch.
The Governor was asked about the future line of action of the central bank to which he replied that he had given a 5-year strategic guidance to his successor, and hoped tat there would not be any break in SBP policies.
He said that economic policies of different governments during the past 15 years remained the same. It showed that there was a consensus on the economic policies, and it was a good omen for economical progress of the country.
He said that he had always given stress on educational development in the country and that was evident from his speeches on different occasions. He said he wanted the youth of the country to reach the higher education levels. "So, the SBP has introduced an educational loan scheme to achieve that goal."
Dr Husain said that he was concerned about the lower income groups who faced difficulties in banking because of higher balance limit for bank accounts. "Now the SBP had solved that problem too by introducing Basic Banking Account (BBA)."
He said that he had always advocated the uplift of agriculture sector, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro finance system to enable maximum number of people getting the fruits of economical progress. The 5-year strategy evaluated by him would increase agriculture sector from 15 percent to 50 percent, SMEs from 17 percent to 40 percent, and the number of people who have availed micro finance facility from Rs 0.5 million to Rs 2 million. Hopefully, the figures would reach the desired limits, he said.