Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari responded to the joint statement from the United States and India mentioning Pakistan by saying Islamabad shouldn’t feel “insecure” about it but cautioned major powers against making “terrorism a victim of geopolitics.
“ Bilawal stated in a speech to the National Assembly that the Foreign Office would release a “detailed policy statement” on the recent joint statement between the US and India that mentioned Pakistan. On the floor of the lower house of parliament, he did offer some “observatory notes” on the subject. The top diplomat of the nation told lawmakers that he thinks it’s crucial for Pakistan to “avoid global politics and concentrate on itself.” He continued by saying that Pakistan can accomplish its “international targets in the world” once political stability and economic problems are resolved.
“I don’t believe there is any reason for Pakistan to be insecure about its relationship with the world or its bilateral partnership with America as a result of increasingly close cooperation between the US and India,” the foreign minister said. He added that Pakistan was standing on its own feet yesterday and is still standing today. Pakistan, he further said, would move forward on its own as per the people’s aspirations, not because in the US-India joint statement, “terrorism was mentioned and Pakistan would take action”. He also reminded the world that Pakistan is the most affected nation by terrorism, even if the casualties of India, the US, Iran and the rest of the world is counted. “Due to our national security and the people’s future, we want to fight terrorism.
We have before on the people’s mandate we took up this issue in 2008 and defeated them,” Bilawal said. However, he added that the policies of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government “pushed back” Islamabad. “And once again this issue is a problem for us and today it is our problem and God forbid might become a problem for some other country. We want to fight [terrorism] for our reasons and to establish peace in our country,” he went on to say. In a rebuke to India on the inclusion of Pakistan’s name in the statement, the foreign minister expressed concern that ever since he took charge and departure of the world from Afghanistan, terrorism has been on the back burner, and Ukraine is the main issue. “No one is focused on terrorism. It is very easy to add that “there should be work on terrorism” in your statement.
” He added that after the fall of Kabul, for the US, Europe or any other country, their focus is on “geopolitics and then other issues”. “We believe that terrorism is such an issue that big powers should not make it controversial. They shouldn’t make it a victim of geopolitics. If we have to face terrorism properly then we will do it ourselves in our country,” he further said. As far as fighting the menace of terrorism in the world is concerned, Bilawal said, Pakistan can only do it if its international partners take it seriously if they decide not to play geo politics on terrorism. “The whole world will [have to] unite and fight this then we will be able to take out its root and end it.” The foreign minister touched on the topic of the US-India joint statement after Defence Minister Khawaja Asif spoke about it in the assembly before he was given the microphone. Asif said that Pakistan today is paying a heavy price for serving as a frontline state in the two Afghan wars.
“Terrorism entered Pakistan because it acted as an ally of the United States in the war on terrorism,” he said, regretting that the sacrifices of Pakistan were not acknowledged. The federal minister also recalled that it was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who oversaw the killings of thousands of Muslims and the rape of Muslim women in Gujarat during his tenure as the chief minister of the state, and in recognition of those atrocities, the US, at that time, had imposed a ban on issuing a visa to him. “The Indian prime minister continues to target the minorities, especially the Muslims. There is an undeclared curfew in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and the people there are living under restrictions of all sorts in blatant violation of human rights,” Asif added. He also said that the Indian government is perpetrating state terrorism in the occupied territory.
