Our Correspondent Multan
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan wants to establish friendly relations with its neighbours as per its foreign policy, adding Islamabad wants good ties with the new US administration. The foreign minister, talking to media, said the Joe Biden government wants a reduction in violence in Afghanistan while Pakistan also fully supports democracy in Afghanistan.
Qureshi expressed the hope that Pakistan’s relations with the new US administration will flourish in the days to come. He said that Pakistan performed an amicable role amid difficult circumstances for the peace process in Afghanistan. He wished that the new US administration would continue to push forward the developments on the Afghan peace process.
He said the new US administration will soon realise that India has changed under its Prime Minister Narendra Modi now and it is no more a democratic country. He said that voices are also being raised in this regard even inside India. Qureshi said that Kashmiris are facing Indian brutalities in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir while minorities are finding themselves unsafe in India.
He said the new US leadership would soon realise that India has changed under Narendra Modi and is “no more a democratic country.”
Qureshi said that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has recognised Prime Minister Imran Khan as ‘elected’ premier by proposing a no-confidence motion against him.
“He should now start calling Imran Khan an elected prime minister and not selected,” he said while talking to media in Multan.
The foreign minister questioned the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s anti-Israel rallies and said that since Islamabad has made it clear it would not recognise Tel Aviv until the Palestine conflict is resolved, there is no point in holding those demonstrations. “They are misleading the nation,” he said.
Qureshi said the PTI government played no part in the agreement signed between Broadsheet LLC and the National Accountability Bureau. “The premier has said the issue should be investigated. Justice (retd) Azmat Saeed has a reputation for his honesty. If the Opposition is so certain it did nothing wrong, then why the panic?” he questioned.
The foreign minister said based on this new reality, the PTI government hoped to engage with the new US administration based on a “new approach and new guidelines”.
“We have made a very big shift, from a geo-strategic position to a geo-economic position,” said the foreign minister.
Qureshi welcomed the idea of no-confidence, terming it a “constitutional measure”. He added that the PTI government and its allies were confident that they are “in a position to confront and defeat it in a constitutional and parliamentary manner.”
He said the no-confidence motion vindicated his stance that the PDM was an “unnatural” alliance since they first agree on a united position then eventually disagree, referring to the PDM’s changing stances on the issue of resignations and the long march to Islamabad.
“They will scatter and you are seeing that has [already] started.”In response to a question from a reporter regarding reservations of certain allied Arab states over recent decisions taken by Pakistan, the foreign minister clarified, “We haven’t signed any agreement that hurts the interests of an allied state.”
“We have never done, and will never do such an agreement which causes damage to any brother Muslim state.”
He said Turkey and Pakistan had openly supported and congratulated Azerbaijan on its “big success” in reclaiming its occupied territory.
