-Says talks with India to resume if August 05 actions in IIOJK reversed
-Terms trade with India without resolving Kashmir issue as treachery
-Speaks of Palestine, Kashmir crises; Water shortages; illegal societies and bumper crop this year
-Vows action against culprits of Ring Road scam
-Claims divided PDM will never be able to succeed
By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said talks with India could resume if the neighbouring country reverses its August 05 actions in occupied Kashmir.
“We have only one issue with India and it is Kashmir and any resumption of trade with them will be a betrayal with Kashmiris,” said the prime minister during a live interaction with the general public on the telephone as he refused to let the blood of Kashmiris who have struggled for self-determination go in vain in exchange of trade ties with India.
He said that they could never think of improving trade ties with India at the cost of Kashmiris.
Moving on to the Palestine crisis, he said events that have just begun to unfold in Kashmir, such as the occupation of land and settlements by the people of India, have been ongoing in Palestine for a while, reducing it to a small country. He said this cycle of Israeli forces’ oppression on Palestinians, leading to protests and then the use of barbaric force in response will continue.
“There are two things that can happen. Either ethnic cleansing, when Muslims and Jews were expelled from Spain which cannot be allowed. Or a two-state solution, a homeland for the Palestinians,” said the prime minister.
He said with the hue and cry being witnessed on social media, where the world has woken up to the cruelty the Palestinians are being subjected to, the winds are blowing for the latter to occur.
Economic Woes:
Responding to a caller, who wanted answers regarding the economic improvement, the prime minister said that never in the country’s history any government faced difficulties that they encountered at the time of assuming power.
“Other than debts, we had to deal with rising loans,” he said and added that austerity measures had to be adopted to overcome economic woes.
The prime minister, however, expressing hope for a better situation ahead said that no one expected a growth rate of nearly four percent in the outgoing year. “We rose even more than the expectations of our opponents,” he said.
Mr. Khan said the country’s projected growth rate at more than 4 per cent would spur economic activities in the country, providing job opportunities and reducing price hike.Illegal Housing Societies and Ring Road Project:
Responding to illegalities pertaining to housing societies, the prime minister said that a board has been established under the leadership of Justice (retd) Azmat Saeed to look into the housing societies scams.
“Some of the illegal societies will be shut while remaining where housing units have been constructed will be imposed a hefty fine for their illegal acts,” Imran Khan said while announcing to charge owners of illegal housing societies under criminal laws and send them behind bars.
While admitting the significance of the Ring Road project, he said that the project will be completed on its previous alignment rather than the changes which were approved to benefit certain people.
“I have taken notice of a fraud in the alignment of Ring Road project and action will be taken against those responsible,” he said while assuring to complete the project on time.
Water shortage in provinces:
The prime minister further said during the interaction with the general public that issues pertaining to water shortage have been witnessed in provinces.
“The telemeters installed to measure water supplies have been not working properly, making it difficult for the authorities to measure water distribution among provinces a difficult task,” he said adding that they are trying to improve the telemeter system.
Imran Khan further said that the government would construct 10 dams in the next 10 years and the work that had to be done in the past 50 years is being carried out by the incumbent government.
‘PDM will not be able to win, come what may’
The prime minister said that if the Opposition’s objective was aligned with the welfare of the people, “they would have toppled the government a long time ago”.
“But their interests are personal in nature. They have banded together not under any ideology or for the country, but simply because they want to blackmail us into taking back the corruption cases against them — which had been in place even before we came into power,” the premier said.
He said that they consider the people fools, who have been watching their wealth grow since the past 30 years.
“Those who had cycles, now roam about in Land Cruisers. Those who had a cycle business, now have apartments in London’s Mayfair and do not own cars any lesser than Bentleys and Rolls Royces.
“They reside in London neighborhoods where even the British prime minister cannot afford to live. And Britain’s yearly revenue is 50 times that of Pakistan’s with a population only 30% of the size of ours,” the prime minister said. He said they really “do not know the people of Pakistan”, if they think that they will latch on to their narrative and help them get an NRO.
“They had not fathomed that we would come out of this economic crisis. And now that they see the predicted growth and the economic indicators which are on the right path, they are again trying to [stage some drama] and I know they will try to pull something off during the budget. “But they will not be able to win, come what may.”
