Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today asked civil servants to ensure quick implementation of the government's development programmes to steer the country towards prosperity.

She made the directive while addressing the fifth founding anniversary of the BCS Women Network at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC).

"With honesty and sincerity, you must ensure the quick implementation of development projects we've taken," Hasina said.

Expressing her resolve to build a better world for the future generation, the premier said all will have to 'sacrifice their present' for the brighter future of the next generation.

"If we can do that, the future generation may have a prosperous and peaceful life…they won't experience turmoil as we do," she said.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith and State Minister for Public Administration Ismat Ara Sadique were present at the function as special guests.

About the country's advancement, the prime minister said her government has taken various programmes for the development of the rural economy. "If we can't strengthen the rural economy, industrialisation will be pointless," she added.

Hasina said the purchasing capacity of people has to increase in order for the domestic market to expand. "We have to move forward with that plan."

Recalling the days that the people of the country have lived through during the destructive politics of BNP-Jamaat nexus, she said that the people of the country do not want to live through that again.

Talking about the development women, the prime minister mentioned that it is not possible to have development in a society or country without the development of women who constitute half the country's population.

Describing various government programmes taken for the empowerment of women, the prime minister said in 1998 the then Awami League government formulated the women policy, but it was changed by the BNP government after 2001.

"In 2009, we formulated the women policy…we made it clear that the government will never enact any law that goes against the Holy Quran and Sunnah, but we have to ensure the rights of women," she said.

Saying that 90 percent people of in Bangladesh are Muslims, Hasina said Islam is a religion of peace.

She said the first person who embraced Islam was a woman and the first person who sacrificed life for Islam was woman. "Even Bibi Ayesha used to go to battlefields with the Prophet (pbh). Hasina mentioned that Islam is the only religion in the world that ensures the rights of women from the father's side and husband's side.

"Sometimes, there is a move to keep us behind the curtain in the name of religion," she regretted.

Later, the prime minister witnessed a short cultural function performed by the BCS Women Network members.

BCS Women Network President Suraiya Begum presided over the function, while its Secretary General Begum Nasrin Aktar delivered the welcoming address.

Additional Inspector General of Police and Rector of the Police Staff College, Fatema Begum and Assistant Commissioner of Comilla, Farhana Jahan Upoma, who stood first in 31st BCS exams, also spoke at the function.