Resilient Pakistan to sail through financial, other challenges: FM Bilawal

NEW YORK: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has assured, the country will successfully overcome the present challenges, including the economic crisis, with resiliency and determination.

“Pakistan has faced difficult times in the past and bravely fought them. The country will triumph over the challenging circumstance once again, he assured reporters in New York. Bilawal began a five-day visit to New York on Tuesday morning. On the third day of his trip, he will preside over a conference on “Women in Islam” that will coincide with the 67th session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

According to the foreign minister, Pakistan is hosting an event on Islamophobia from the Council of Foreign Ministers platform in order to combat misperceptions about human rights, particularly those of women and minorities. He claimed that Islam is the only religion that upholds the equality of women and encourages their emancipation in all spheres of life. When questioned about the pro-women stance of his party, he referred to women as the Pakistan Peoples Party’s strength because they fought for the rights of the nation’s women. The adoption of national action plans by more than 90 nations around the world, which empowered women and girls and helped them respond to violence and conflict, was earlier welcomed by Bilawal.

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.