HYDERABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday said some external powers want to destabilise Pakistan by arming and funding the terrorist elements involved in the attacks like Friday’s suicide blast in a Peshawar mosque.
Talking to media in Tandojam area, Qureshi said: “They back such elements by giving them arms and funds so that they can keep the western borders of Pakistan hot.”
He said that the situation is worsening in the Indian-Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and the powers in question want to create a distraction for Pakistan on the western borders.
He said that the mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic by India has caused a setback to their economy, adding that comparatively, Pakistan has been recognised to have managed the situation well.
He said the foreign investment has begun to grow in Pakistan and that the country’s exports are also being increased.
“The textile industry of Pakistan has received so many orders, which the mills are unable to supply,” he said, adding that no textile mills, looms or spindles are closed in Faisalabad at the moment.
According to him, the textile exports had stalled during the previous governments. He credited the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government for the growth of housing and tourism sectors and said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has also provided the industrialisation package.
The FM recalled that when the cricket team of New Zealand was scheduled to visit Pakistan a scare was spread and the team’s visit was cancelled.
He added that in that regard, he presented the statistics and proofs at a press conference at the foreign office, besides handing over dossiers to the Secretary General of the United Nations, President of the Security Council and their foreign ministers.
Replying to another query, he said 900,000 Indian army troops are stationed in IOK and that there are also the so-called special laws and extra judicial killings are happening as well.
“The occupying forces take away young men and after some days, their dead bodies are found. There were also mass graves. All these are tactics through which they have suppressed the people,” he added.
He threw down the gauntlet to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to come to Muzaffarabad and present his case to the people.
In return, he said, Modi should allow Prime Minister Imran Khan to go to Srinagar and present his case before the people there. “Then let the people judge who is right and who wins,” he stated.
He apprised that he has written 23 letters to the UNSC over the Kashmir issue, besides organising debates in the UN thrice since August, 2019, the month during which India illegally annexed IOK.
Qureshi said no other leader of Pakistan has fought the case of Kashmir more eagerly in recent history than Prime Minister Imran Khan. He asked the people to take up speeches of PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and compare them with Khan’s speeches to find out which of the two leaders mentioned the Kashmir issue more times.
Commenting on the creation of a new province in Punjab, he said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is deceiving the people to whom he is promising that he would create South Punjab province.
He told that some time ago he wrote a letter to Bilawal and asked him to join hands with the PTI government to address the issue of South Punjab but the PPP leader did not even bother to reply.
He credited the PTI government for having taken practical steps in the direction of materialising its promises with the people of South Punjab.
The foreign minister elaborated that as part of the administrative actions taken by the PTI government, the secretariats of bureaucracy have been established in Multan and Bahawalpur.
He added that the separate rules of business have been formed and additional chief secretaries and additional IGs have been posted there.
“The region has been provided separate development funds which could not be utilised in any other part of Punjab,” he claimed.
He said that the prime minister is planning to provide a fixed employment quota to the youth of South Punjab.
He asked the PPP leadership to tell the nation what special measures have they taken to serve the people of Sindh.
