FOREIGN Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi urged the international community on Thursday to act immediately to stop state-sponsored terrorism and religious discrimination in South Asia.
In a virtual address to a United Nations meeting in New York, the Foreign Minister highlighted the hateful political rhetoric and incitement to violence against vulnerable ethnic and religious groups practised in Pakistan’s neighbourhood.
The international community is rightly concerned about the phenomenon of terrorism but unfortunately it has demonstrated discriminatory approaches in dealing with the threat in different parts of the world.
Pakistan has long been emphasizing the need to tackle the menace of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations but the influential capitals of the world and the United Nations act selectively because of their vested interests.
What India is doing to its minorities, especially Muslims, is a well-documented reality, which has been highlighted in the dossiers that Pakistan has provided to the UN and important capitals besides reports of the UN Human Rights Council and a number of findings of rights’ groups and truly independent media.
Similarly, the Foreign Minister has also called for global alliance against the rise and spread of Islamophobia as well as other violent nationalist and racist groups. However, mere calls would not change the situation and Pakistan, together with other Islamic and like-minded countries, should initiate concrete moves at different regional and global forums to persuade the world to act decisively on these issues.
