PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif surely deserves a salute from the nation for advocating the cause of the country in an argumentative manner during his 25-minute address at the UN General Assembly in New York.
He highlighted the human rights violations in Kashmir and Palestine, condemned terrorism and reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to peace and dialogue but vowed to resolutely defend the nation against any external aggression or India’s usurpation of water rights. The speech, delivered immaculately, covered a range of national, regional and international issues, including the recent Pakistan-India war, Kashmir, Palestine, terrorism, Afghanistan, ongoing floods in Pakistan and multilateralism.
The contents of the address and the synchronized body language were commensurate with the rising status and image of the country due to the balanced foreign policy being pursued by the incumbent government. This is explained by inclusion of the topics in the speech and the arguments built to support Pakistan’s point of view. Shehbaz dilated upon almost all issues of interest to Pakistan, the region and the wider world and represented aspirations of his people and spoke the language of the global community. It was after a long time that Pakistan discarded muted references to India and the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir as the Prime Minister clearly and emphatically conveyed the country’s principled point of view. As the UN stands for peace, the PM told the world leaders that Pakistan believed in the peaceful settlement of disputes through dialogue and diplomacy and said that Pakistan confronted the unprovoked Indian aggression in May, proving his words at the UNGA during the previous address true. He pointed out that India sought to extract political gains from a human tragedy by spurning his offer of an investigation into the Pahalgam incident. Instead, it attacked Pakistan’s cities and targeted innocent civilians compelling the country to respond as per the inherent right of self-defense. His remarks “the enemy came shrouded in arrogance; we sent them back in humiliation” aptly summed up India’s miscalculations and Pakistan’s capability to defend itself. The Prime Minister conveyed a positive message by reiterating the offer of dialogue to India, declaring Pakistan won the war and now seeks to win the peace in our region but the dialogue should be composite, comprehensive and result-oriented. He acknowledged the role played by President Donald Trump in facilitating a ceasefire as continued conflict could have catastrophic consequences. He also expressed gratitude to countries like China, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Azerbaijan, Iran, UAE and the UN Secretary-General for their diplomatic support. As India is continuing with its belligerent posture vis-à-vis flow of water to Pakistan, the Prime Minister sensitized the international community of the dangers involved as any violation of the Indus Water Treaty represents an act of war, declaring in clear-cut terms Pakistan would definitely and ardently defend the inalienable right of its 240 million people on these waters. Shehbaz Sharif also drew the attention of the world towards denial of the right of self-determination to Kashmiris during the last about eighty years. He assured Kashmiris that the people of Pakistan stood with them and soon, one day, India’s tyranny in Kashmir would come to a grinding halt. The address covered at length the ongoing genocide in Gaza and atrocities committed by Israel in the West Bank, reiterating Pakistan’s support for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian State, with pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, he said Palestine must be liberated as it could no longer remain under Israeli shackles. The Prime Minister refreshed memories of the audience about the immense sacrifices offered by people and security agencies of Pakistan in their campaign against terror for the sake of regional and global peace. He also drew the attention of the UN countries towards foreign-funded terror threats to Pakistan. The forceful arguments made by the Prime Minister on these and other subjects like climate change, hate speech, Islamophobia and the process of ongoing reforms in Pakistan will surely help galvanize international public opinion on these issues.
