Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan, addressed the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) via video link on Friday and cautioned the world against rising Islamophobia across the world.
In a virtual address, the prime minister lamented that at a time when the global community should have come together to combat the novel coronavirus, it had instead stoked racism and religious hatred. Islamophobia was rising in several countries, he said, adding that Muslims were being killed, mosques were being desecrated and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was being insulted “in the name of freedom of speech”.
Speaking about the Indian held Kashmir, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that India was “obliterating the distinct Kashmiri identity” through its illegal measures in the occupied territory.”
“The secularism of Gandhi and Nehru has been replaced by the dream of creating a Hindu Rashtra, by subjugating, even cleansing India’s 200 million Muslims and other minorities,” he said.
PM Imran spoke about the RSS’s attempt to destroy the Babri Masjid and the massacre of 2,000 Muslims in the Gujarat riots. “And this was [Gujarat massacre] under the watch of chief minister Modi,” he said.
“While the Nazis’ hate was directed at the Jews, the RSS directs it at the Muslims, and to a lesser extent, the Christians,” he said, adding that the extremist ideologists believe that India is exclusively for Hindus and others are not equal citizens.
Imran Khan, highlighting grave human rights violations in the Indian occupied territory, said that peace was not possible in South Asia unless the Kashmir dispute is resolved.
“Security Council has reviewed the Kashmir issue thrice in the past one year,” he said and urged the international community to probe the serious violations committed by the Indian authorities. Imran Khan said that excess security personnel was deployed in the territory to control eight million Kashmiris besides killing several of them extra-judicially in fake encounters.
He said that Pakistan supports the right of self-determination of Kashmiris and considered it their just right. “India should agree to solve Kashmir issue through UN resolutions and as per the wishes of the Kashmiris,” he said and demanded of the Indian authorities to immediately lift curfew in the territory and stop human rights violations.
He further warned of a befitting response from the nation in case of any Indian aggression. The premier spoke about India’s discriminatory policies for Muslims during the pandemic, saying that the government blamed the minority group for spreading the coronavirus and they were denied medical treatment on many occasions.
“Last February, Muslims faced target killings with police complicity in Delhi,” he said. Referring to it as something that was “unprecedented in history”, PM Imran said that the Hindutva ideology sought to persecute 300 million Muslims, Christians and Sikhs.
PM Imran then spoke about India’s August 5 attempt to annex occupied Kashmir. “Mr President, India illegally sought to occupy Kashmir, adding that this was against the commitments India had made to the people of Kashmir and the world.
“About 13,000 Kashmiri youth were incarcerated and thousands tortured,” he said. “Indian occupation forces have used brute force including pellet guns against peaceful protesters,” he said.
The prime minister shed a light on the country’s efforts to curb the coronavirus and noted that Pakistan’s response was recognised as one of the “success stories” in controlling the disease.
“However, we are still not out of the woods like no country is out of the woods today,” said Prime Minister Imran, adding that from the outset of the pandemic, developing countries were at a disadvantage due to lack of fiscal resources. He also souht UNGA’s attention towards money laundering and corruption by the elite of developing countries who stash their wealth in tax havens in developed countries.
“Since they are beneficiaries, there is a lack of political will in the rich countries to curb this criminal activity,” he declared and added that if money launderers were provided with sanctuaries, the gulf between poor and rich countries will continue to grow and may lead to a bigger challenge than the current migration crisis.
He also warned that India had “upped its military ante” against Pakistan in order to divert attention from its domestic problems. The premier once again directed the world community’s attention towards the human rights violations by the Indian government in occupied Kashmir. The prime minister also spoke about Israel’s occupation of Palestine and said that “a just and lasting settlement is indispensable for the Middle East and actually the world”.
Prime Minister Imran said that the “illegal annexations” of Palestinian lands, the building of illegal settlements and imposing “inhumane living conditions” on Palestinian people could not lead to peace. He said that Pakistan supported a two-state solution “in line with the UNGA and UNSC resolutions within the international agreed parameters; and they are pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Shareef as the capital of a united, contiguous and independent Palestinian state”.
“The United Nations should be made fully responsive to the challenges of our times. A comprehensive reform of the United Nations, including the Security Council, is essential to promote greater democracy, accountability, transparency and efficiency,” the prime minister insisted.
PM Imran said Covid-19 has made the world realised benefits of unity, saying, “No one is safe until everyone is safe”.
“Mankind today is at a greater risk than it was during the World War I and II,” he quoted Noam Chomsky.
“In Pakistan we realised that more people would die of hunger than virus… and for this reason alone we opted for ‘smart lockdown’ and gradually restored economic activities across the country,” he said.
Speaking about his government’s smart lockdown policy, the prime minister said that Pakistan opened up the agriculture and construction sector. He credited the government’s Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme and other policies towards steering Pakistan out of the Covid-19 pandemic. The prime minister spoke out against the flow of illicit financing from developing countries to the developed ones. He said that these “stolen resources” that flow from the developing countries to others weakens the foreign exchange and promotes property.
“If this policy continues, it will accentuate the difference between the rich and the poor,” said PM Imran, adding that rich countries lacked the political will to “curb this criminal activity”.
“Eventually, it will spark off a bigger global crisis, a far bigger global crisis than the migration crisis poses,” he said, adding that rich states cannot talk about human rights when they provide protection to money launderers and their ill-gotten wealth.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said that there are robust anti-money laundering regimes, adding that he calls upon the UN “to take the lead in efforts to build a global framework, to stem the illicit financial flows and ensure speedy repatriation of stolen wealth”.
