ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Imran Khan has said diplomatic efforts have brought down tension in the Middle East following the recent U.S.-Iran conflict but there is a need to continue efforts for a permanent solution.
In an interview with Turkish global wire Anadolu Agency, he said Pakistan has played its part in bringing down tensions and we have averted war.
The Prime Minister said he firmly believes that military conflicts do not solve problems but increase problems. |He said they have unintended consequences as we have seen the two Afghan Wars.
Talking about situation of Indian Occupied Kashmir, Imran Khan said the world should understand what is happening in Kashmir and India. He said India has been taken over by extremist racist ideology, which is called the RSS and this ideology believes that India belongs to Hindus only. He said RSS was declared as a terrorist organization in India three times.
He said India has clamped down a curfew on 8 million people of Kashmir for almost six months and deputed 900,000 troops in the held valley. They have put all the leadership in prisons as well as thousands of young teenagers into various prisons outside Kashmir.
He said it is a serious situation Pakistan has raised it on every forum and at the UN, with humanitarian organizations and Amnesty International. He said Pakistan is grateful for the way Turkey stood with the people of Kashmir and the statement given by President Erdogan on what is happening to the people of Kashmir by a very fascist racist BJP government was encouraging.
Replying a question about Pak-Turk relationship, the Prime Minister said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit Islamabad in the middle of this month and he hoped that this visit would further strengthen the brotherly relationship between Islamabad and Ankara. He said people in Pakistan had relationship with Turkey from Khilafat movement and now we have the government to the government, a very close relationship.
He said during the visit of Turkish President to Pakistan all sorts of ways of economic ties will be discussed including our strategic and diplomatic ties. He said Pakistan wants technology transfer from Turkey in various areas.
About tourism in Pakistan, he said his country is a very diverse in tourism as it has 12 climate zones from north to south, including religious tourism, and one of the oldest civilizations, the Indus Valley Civilization. He said one of the highest mountains in the world and the government is now developing our tourism.
Appreciating the government economic team, the prime minister said that it did a great job and we have curtailed the current account deficit by almost 75 percent. He said the rupee has stabilized, confidence in our economy is growing and the stock market has gone up. He said we are moving to the next program to enhance growth rate and the government will be able to provide jobs to younger people.
He said Pakistan has the second youngest population in the world and we are now improving governance system, and ease of doing business. He said we were one of the top 10 countries which went up 28 points in ease of doing business and hopefully Pakistan would become the hub of investment.
