Zubair Qureshi
President Dr Arif Alvi while reiterating Pakistan’s commitment to lasting friendship with China said on Thursday People’s Republic of China has once again emerged as true and trusted friend after raising Kashmir issue during the ongoing UN summit in New York.
Once again, China has demonstrated it is Pakistan’s all-weather friend and is concerned over the plight of the innocent Kashmiris being persecuted in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, said the president.
President Dr Arif Alvi was addressing as Chief Guest a reception held to mark the 70th anniversary of the Founding of PRC organized at the Embassy of China.
According to an official of the Chinese embassy, it was first time that President of Pakistan had graced the National Day reception of China.
One could see a large number of guests, dignitaries, government and armed forces officials, writers and intellectuals, artists and even school children participating and witnessing festivities (musical performances, national anthems) that added colour to the evening.
Those prominent among the guests included Chairman Senate of Pakistan, Mohammad Sadiq Sanjrani, Special Assistant to PM on Information & Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan, Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood, Railways Minister Sh Rashid Ahmed, DG ISPR Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, Dean of Diplomatic Corps Ambassador of Ukraine Volodymyr Lakomov, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders Ahsan Iqbal and Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, PPP’s leaders former Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Sen Rehman Malik and Syed Nayyir Bukhari, Federal Secretary for National History and Literary Heritage Dr Nadeem Shafiq Malik, PAL Chairman Junaid Akhlaq, MD National Book Foundation Dr Inamul Haq Javed, Chairman Roots School System Faisal Mushtaq and others.
The president while felicitating the Ambassador and Chinese nationals on the historic occasion said China stood by Pakistan at a time when India was trying to isolate the country internationally.
The president while referring to visionary leader of China President Xi Jinping said China had lifted around 700 million people out of poverty which showed Chinese leadership’s sincerity and seriousness towards improving their people’s conditions.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan too mentioned this very aspect of Chinese economy in his recent interactive meetings in the UN,” said the president.
The president also highlighted importance of economic wellbeing of a country as it plays key role in diplomatic overtures. “Today more than 9 million people are subjugated to state atrocities and torture in the IOK and complete lockdown has been clamped in the occupied valley, still world is reluctant to speak about it because of their stakes in Indian market,” said President Alvi.
Pakistan needs to achieve economic prosperity as “together with justice, a country’s economic status also counts among other countries.”
Earlier, Ambassador Yao Jing while expressing his gratitude to President Arif Alvi, his spouse Samina Alvi and guests said the president’s presence in the national day reception was a special gesture that he and his embassy valued most. Friendship between Pakistan and China would continue to grow in the coming days as it has already graduated to next stage because of the successful implementation of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) said Ambassador. Besides economic development, CPEC also aims at regional connectivity and more resources will be spend under CPEC on socio-cultural development, said the ambassador. He said it was not only the 70th anniversary of the Founding Day of China but it was also a story of 7 decades of Sino-Pak relations.
The ambassador said China with US $ 14 trillion GDP was the second largest and the first fastest growing economy of the world. “Our foreign policy is based on peace, fairness and state-to-state relations,” said the ambassador. Pakistan he said was the first Muslim country to recognize China in 1949.
