Zubair Qureshi
Eminent intellectual, writer and columnist Ikram Sehgal while speaking at a session titled “Reversing the Great Game: Pakistan’s Pivot” at the Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF) here Saturday termed Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent address at the United Nations “excellent one” and a timely wake-up call on the international community.
He called upon all the stakeholders to build ‘Kashmir case’ on that historic speech.
The premiere has acted as true spokesperson of the Kashmiri men, women, children, youth and the elderly people of the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and his address would definitely work with the West, the US and the UN that are earlier keeping mum on the worst atrocities being committed by the occupying Indian forces in the IOK, said Mr Sehgal.
The session was one of many held in the sidelines of the ILF that is pulling crowds from far and wide of the country.
The other speakers of the session were Dr Huma Baqai and Lt Gen (R) Asif Yasin Malik while Moeed Pirzada was the moderator of the interactive session. Deputy head of mission Embassy of France, Yves Manville, former Secretary Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi, Gen (R) Talat Masood, diplomats, analysts and students attended the session in large number.
Ikram Sehgal highlighting China’s role in ending Pakistan’s international isolation said China was and is a time-tested friend of Pakistan and he was a witness to this friendship since the time when Kara Koram Highway (KKH) was under construction in 1960s.
“As a young army officer I used to wonder and shared my thoughts even with Chinese engineers and workers at the site of the KKH asking them what use it was of constructing a from ‘nowhere to nowhere,’” said Ikram Sehgal.
