NEW YORK: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said the Pakistan nation, with the resilience and determination, would effectively overcome the current challenges including the economic crisis.
“Pakistan has seen tough times in the past and fought them bravely. This time too, the nation will overcome the difficult situation,” he told reporters here in New York on Tuesday.
Bilawal arrived in New York Tuesday morning to begin a 5-day visit during which he will preside over a conference on ‘Women in Islam’, which is set to take place Wednesday on the sidelines of the 67th Session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
The foreign minister said Pakistan from the platform of Council of Foreign Ministers is hosting an event on Islamophobia to shun negative perceptions regarding the human rights, particularly of women and minorities.
Islam, he said, is the religion which grants rights to women and promotes their emancipation in all fields of life.
Asked about the pro-women approach of his party, he termed women as the strength of Pakistan Peoples Party who championed the rights of the women of the country.
Earlier, Bilawal welcomed the adoption of national action plans by more than 90 countries around the world, which have empowered women and girls and helped them respond to violence and conflict.
He joined others in voicing concern that women and girls continue to be the primary victims of crimes and conflict.
Expressing disappointment over restrictions imposed on women in Afghanistan including their right to access work and education at all levels and urging their reversal, he said the most egregious hypocrisies and crimes occur in foreign occupations and places where the right to self-determination is violated.
Earlier, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said it will be too difficult for his party to remain part of the federal government if the centre does not fulfil its promises of giving relief to flood victims of Sindh. Mr Bhutto-Zardari also objected to the manner the digital census exercise was being conducted, saying it was unacceptable that elections in one province take place based on a different census, and other provincial polls are held based on a ‘flawed’ digital census. –Agencies
