by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has said that Pakistan will be a very, very important country in the coming future and that his country had been waiting for a leadership like that of Prime Minister Imran Khan to partner with Islamabad in various areas.
The Crown Prince arrived in Pakistan on Sunday evening on a two-day visit after which he will travel to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Addressing a reception dinner at the Prime Minister House here, the Crown Prince called Pakistan a “dear country” to all Saudis and said the two countries had “walked together in tough and good times”, Dawn news reported on Monday.
“We believe that Pakistan is going to be a very, very important country in the coming future and we want to be sure we are part of that. Pakistan today has a great future in store with a great leadership.”
The Saudi royal said his country will collaborate with Pakistan economically, politically and in terms of security. “We believe in our region, that is why we are investing in it.”
“This is my first trip (to the) east since I became the Crown Prince (in 2017) and the first country (that I have visited) is Pakistan,” he added.
Bin Salman also ordered the immediate release of 2,107 Pakistani prisoners languishing in the kingdom’s prisons after the issue was raised by Khan at the dinner.
Giving details, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi tweeted on Monday: “Cases of the remaining (Pakistani prisoners) will be reviewed. People of Pakistan thank His Royal Highness Prince Salman for responding immediately to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s request.”
Khan had also urged the Crown Prince to look into the hardships of the Pakistani labourers working in the Kingdom.
“Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman won the hearts of the people of Pakistan when he said ‘Consider me Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia’ in response to my asking him to treat the 2.5 million Pakistanis working in Saudi Arabia as his own,” the Pakistani leader tweeted.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan on Sunday signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) for bilateral cooperation worth $20 billion.
The deals included exploration of investment opportunities in refining and petrochemical sectors; cooperation in sports; financing agreement for import of Saudi goods; power generation projects; and development of renewable energy projects.
Also on Sunday, Khan and Bin Salman held a one-on-one meeting which was followed by the inaugural session of the Saudi-Pakistan Supreme Coordination Council.
The Saudi royal’s visit was initially scheduled for February 16, but was delayed by a day for unknown reasons.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistan is planning to form a government agency for promoting the country as a tourist-friendly nation so as to attract foreign tourists, local reports said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday approved to form the 25-member National Tourism Coordination Board for the promotion of tourism, ARY News reported.
The board will work for promoting tourism, enhancing coordination between federation and provinces governments, formulating provincial regulatory framework and highlighting other objectives including the promotion of country’s tourism at international level.
The board will also direct Pakistani embassies across the world to adopt measures regarding promotion of country’s tourism sector, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.
The prime minister also decided to organize Pakistan Tourism Expo this year at the international level and form working groups for religious, cultural and historical tourism.
The present Pakistani government is focusing on tourism sector for generating revenue for its economy. Earlier, the country decided to relax visa rules for dozens of countries in the first phase to attract tourists and foreign investment in the country.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
By Arul Louis,
United Nations : Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan’s phone call to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres centered on Kashmir, according to a UN spokesperson, who said that it was “only normal” for Guterres to speak to heads of government,.
“I can confirm to you that the phone call did happen and it centered on the issue of Kashmir as brought up by the prime minister,” Guterres’s Spokesperson Stephane Guterres told reporters here on Friday.
He did not provide any details of their conversation that took place on Thursday.
Asked by a reporter to react to Indian External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar’s reported remark that Pakistan should mind its own business and Kashmir is a part of India, Dujarric said, “Our position on Kashmir has been reiterated, there is an observer group as mandated by the Security Council.”
The 113-member UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) established by the security council monitors the cease-fire in between the two neighbours in Kashmir.
Dujarric added, “The prime minister called, wanted to speak to the secretary-general. It is only normal that the secretary-general speak to heads of government and heads of state, and, as I said, I can confirm that the call took place and that the prime minister raised the issue of Kashmir.”
Radio Pakistan reported that Khan asked Guterres to send a commission of inquiry to investigate the human rights situation in Kashmir as recommended by former UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein earlier this year.
Although Guterres has backed Zeid’s call for the investigation and the current Commissioner Michelle Bachelet has endorsed it, neither the Human Rights Council nor other UN bodies have acted on it.
India has said that Zeid’s report on human rights violations in Kashmir and the proposal for an investigation were “clearly biased”.
UNMOGIP continues to operate under the security council mandate that grew out of a 1948 resolution that set up its predecessor organisation following the fighting that started in 1947 when Pakistani troops disguised a tribesmen invaded Kashmir soon after Independence.
India maintains that the UNMOGIP has no role because of the 1971 Simla agreement between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and then-President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto stipulating that Kashmir was a bilateral issue with no role for third parties.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has an “anti-Muslim” and “anti-Pakistan” approach and claimed New Delhi rebuffed all his gestures due to the upcoming general elections.
Khan made the remarks in an interview to the Washington Post on Thursday. Later, at an event in the capital on Friday the Prime Minister said that “the condition of Muslims in today’s India proved that the demand for a separate homeland was justified”.
Asked during the interview with the Post that why his gestures to India were dismissed since he took power earlier this year, Khan said “The ruling party (in India) has an anti-Muslim, anti-Pakistan approach.”
He claimed that India rejected his repeated calls for peace because it has the general elections coming up in 2019. “India has elections coming up. They rebuffed all my overtures.”
Khan expressed the hope that once the elections get over in India, both countries can resume talks.
He later addressed Baloch students during an event here on Friday and said: “The way Muslims are treated today in India has made people realise now why Pakistan was born.”
In his interview with the Post, Khan said that he opened the Kartarpur border to facilitate visa-free pilgrimage by Indian Sikhs to Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara where Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak Dev spent the last 18 years of his life.
A day earlier, Khan slammed New Delhi for giving a “political colour” to his gesture of Kartarpur border opening and called it “unfortunate”.
“Unfortunately, India portrayed it as us seeking political advantage… The Indian media gave Kartarpur (border opening) a political colour as if we did this to gain some sort of political mileage. This is not true. We did it because it is part of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s manifesto,” he said.
The Pakistani leader also said that he “wants something done about the bombers of Mumbai”, adding that “resolving that case is in our interest because it was an act of terrorism”.
Ten Pakistani terrorists sneaked into Mumbai through the sea in 2008 and went on a killing spree, leaving 166 Indians and foreigners dead. Indian security forces shot dead nine of them while a 10th, who was captured, was hanged.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
By Gaurav Sharma,
Beijing : When Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan arrives in Beijing later this week, the newly-minted leader will have his task cut out: To secure fresh Chinese loans for his country’s hobbling economy.
Khan’s four-day visit, which begins on Friday, is also significant for Beijing, which is worried over the tardy progress of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Islamabad’s new government’s reported second thoughts on the project, a linchpin of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative.
“During his election campaign, he said some words against the Belt and Road initiative. We were worried if there would be some policy changes (if he came to power). But recently, I think, things have become better,” Wang Dehua, a South Asia expert at the Shanghai Municipal Center for International Studies, told IANS.
“This is Imran Khan’s first visit (to China) and will be a landmark one,” Wang added.
In the run-up to Pakistan’s general election earlier this year, Khan had slammed his predecessor Nawaz Sharif for alleged corruption in the Chinese-funded project.
Beijing grew more worried when the new government under Khan reportedly said Islamabad thinks the deals under the CPEC were “unfair” and wants to renegotiate them with Beijing.
“This was a misleading interpretation by the media,” Wang added.
Xi Jinping has poured about a trillion dollars into the Belt and Road project that aims to connect Asia, Africa and Europe through a vast network of highways, railways and sea lanes.
Of the allocation, China has pledged some $60 billion for the CPEC alone, the crown jewel of its connectivity project that aims to connect Kashgar in its restive western province Xinjiang with Pakistan’s Gwadar port in the troubled Balochistan region.
Beijing knows the strategic importance of Gwadar port in the Arabian Sea which, once developed, will give China easy access to one of the most important trade arteries, the Straits of Hormuz.
China is building railways, highways and industrial parks under the framework of the CPEC, which, it says, will give jobs and bring prosperity to Pakistan. Islamabad too says this publicly.
The “iron-brothers” keep swearing unflinching loyalty to each other.
India has made no bones about its opposition to the CPEC as it claims the part of disputed Kashmir held by Pakistan through which the route of project is planned.
Besides this, the West sees the Belt and Road as a tool for Beijing to spread its geo-strategic influence and push poor countries like Pakistan into a debt trap by giving them high-interest loans.
When China and Pakistan inked the CPEC deal in 2013, Pakistan’s foreign debt was $61 billion, which now stands at about $95 billion. According to independent estimates, Islamabad owes $19 billion to Beijing alone.
Pakistani Railway Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad lent credence to these reports when he announced that Chinese investment in a rail project was being lowered from $8.2 billion to $6.2 billion, citing his country’s inability to repay.
“CPEC is like the backbone for Pakistan, but our eyes and ears are open,” Ahmad said.
China vehemently denies the charge of “debt diplomacy”, saying the US is jealous of the success of the Belt and Road initiative and Beijing’s rise. It maintains that the CPEC has brought stability to the region.
Pakistan is a broke nation today whose biggest lender is China. Since 1980, Islamabad has gone to the IMF 13 times seeking bail outs.
When Khan made the 14th attempt, the IMF told Islamabad to disclose all the financial details of the CPEC about which China and Pakistan have been cagey.
Khan changed his mind, flew to “friendly” Saudi Arabia and came back with a $6 billion loan.
The leader, who has vowed to change the fortunes of Pakistan, will try his luck yet again when he meets Xi.
Asked if he thinks Beijing will give another loan to Islamabad, Wang said: “No comments.”
Beijing has sounded positive about granting new loans to Islamabad with the Foreign Ministry saying that China supports Pakistan in dealing with a difficult financial situation.
In the face of a bleeding trade war with the US and a slowing down of China’s economy, Chinese critics have begun questioning the way Xi is giving loans to other countries.
If Beijing extends another loan to Pakistan after sanctioning $2 billion earlier this year, it is to be seen what promise it exacts from Islamabad.
Also, Beijing would never want the US-dominated IMF to know about the financial details of the CPEC.
Khan is all praise for the CPEC now and might go back home happy. However, he might be conveyed Beijing’s displeasure over Pakistan raising human rights issues in Xingjiang.
In October, Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Minister urged the Chinese envoy to soften the restrictions placed on Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. A Pakistani minister telling the Chinese envoy to handle the situation was unexpected for Beijing from its “best friend.”
The issue of stability in Afghanistan is also likely to figure between both sides as Beijing wants a peaceful Kabul for geo-strategic reasons.
The two allies will also discuss America’s foreign policy. The US has turned the heat on China on trade and other fronts. It has scrapped military aid to Pakistan and signed a big defence deal with India.
“It is natural that Pakistan will move closer to Beijing in the light of the growing proximity between Washington and New Delhi,” Wang said.
(Gaurav Sharma is the IANS correspondent in Beijing. He can be contacted at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com )
—IANS
