By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in his Senate address earlier Monday that foreign policies when hammered out have lasting impacts and claimed what Pakistan suffers today is the result of how earlier rulers who frequented to the helm of affairs dealt matters. He said those who were in Kashmir Committee are equally responsible for how matters still persist in our foreign front which was in an apparent reference to Maulana Fazlur Rehman of Jamiat Ulema e Islama – Fazal.
There’s an attempt by our neighbor India to insinuate that Pakistan is being left alone in international diplomacy but it is a futile struggle, he said. FM Qureshi said the fingers that are pointed today at India used to object to Pakistan once, but we have been trying to efficiently design our economic diplomacy. Pakistan desires to build good relations with India but BJP regime is the main hurdle in this way, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.
Hindutva ideology has stained India’s secular identity and now Pakistan consistently apprises the world of Indian atrocities in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said the government is focusing on promoting economic diplomacy to strengthen the economy. He said economic stability is the key to a successful foreign policy and noted that under the Look Africa policy, the country has achieved 7 percent growth in our export with African countries.
Also on the second phase of China Pakistan Economic Corridor, the foreign minister said the country’s productivity is being enhanced through transfer of technology. It’s our desire to maintain cordial relations with all of its neighbors for a long-lasting regional peace, he said with Afghanistan on as our first priority. He said that the government was focused on economic diplomacy and it was engaging Africa – a continent of 57 countries – adding that exports to the continent has increased by seven per cent.
In the next stage, the countries of Europe will be engaged to boost mutual economic interests, he added. He added that Saudi Arabia gave a credit facility to Pakistan and, as the loan was given for a limited period, the amount had also returned. He further said the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had categorically stated that its relations with India would not be at the cost of Pakistan. The government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had forcefully raised the Kashmir issue at different international forums, he continued. The minister said that terrorists were targeting innocent people in Balochistan and the government had irrefutable evidence that India was fomenting trouble in the province. He said that he had informed the United Nations and the world leaders about the violations of Line of Control (LoC) by the Indian troops which was killing civilian population in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
