Islamabad, Oct 19 (IANS): Political stability is mandatory for achieving economic progress, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said adding that if some people think that a single political party can tackle the challenges, "they are living in a fool's paradise".

Gilani, while stressing the importance of political stability as the key to achieving economic progress and prosperity, said no political party can alone tackle problems facing the country, including terrorism.

"There is a need to tackle the challenges unitedly. If some people think that a political party can tackle the challenges, they are living in a fool's paradise," Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Gilani as saying.

He was addressing an awards ceremony of an industry body here Tuesday.

Gilani said law and order and economic development were inter-linked.

He said since he took over as prime minister, he had been trying to bring together various political parties at a single platform to ensure political stability.

He added that the government had resolved to fight terrorists.

"Leave this path," Gilani warned terrorists.

Gilani spoke of the large scale foreign investment in power generation sector in the country through Independent Power Producers (IPPs) during the 1993-96 Benazir Bhutto government.

"If the IPPs were not there, the people in Pakistan would have been living in stone age today," he said.