Shahbaz Sharif has exhorted world leaders gathered for their annual meeting at the General Assembly to stand together and raise resources “to build resilient infrastructure, to build adaptation, so that our future generations are saved.”
The initial estimate of losses to the economy as a result of the three-month flooding disaster is $30 billion, Sharif said, and he asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday to hold a donors’ conference quickly. The U.N. chief agreed, Sharif told The Associated Press in a wide-ranging interview. “Thousands of kilometers of roads have been smashed, washed away – railway bridges, railway track, communications, underpasses, transport. All this requires funds,” Sharif said. “We need funds to provide livelihood to our people.”
Sharif said skyrocketing prices have put the import of oil “beyond our capacity,” and – with the damage and destruction from the massive flooding – solutions have become “extremely difficult.” Pakistan may have to import about a million tons of wheat because of the destruction of farmland. He said it could come from Russia, but the country is open to other offers. The country also needs fertilizer because factories involved in their production are closed.
The Pakistani leader said he met top officials from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and appealed for a moratorium on loan repayments and deferment of other conditions until the flood situation improves. “They sounded very supportive,” Sharif said, but he stressed that a delay “can spell huge consequences” – both for the economy and for the Pakistani people.
One dimension of grain purchases taps into one of Pakistan’s most existential issues – its relationship with neighboring India.
Would Pakistan consider buying grain from India if needed? Sharif said that notion is impeded by “a legal bottleneck” – Kashmir, the Himalayan territory claimed by both countries but divided between them. It has been at the center of two of the four wars India has fought with Pakistan and China. “India is a neighbor, and Pakistan would very much like to live like a peaceful neighbor with India,” Sharif said. “But that has certain prerequisites. India has to understand that unless and until the burning issue of Kashmir is resolved through peaceful talks … like peaceful neighbors, with the sincerity of purpose, we will not be able to live in peace.”
“And that is a great shame and embarrassment,” he said. “Because in this day and age, we need our resources to feed our people, to educate them, to provide job opportunities, to provide health opportunities. India can’t afford to spend money on buying ammunition and defense equipment. Nor can Pakistan.”
On the other side of Pakistan, to the west, sits Afghanistan – a place that shares geography, strategic interests and much ethnic heritage with Sharif’s nation. Sharif said its Taliban rulers, who have been in power for a year, have “a golden opportunity to ensure peace and progress” for the people by adhering to the Doha Agreement.
The Taliban should provide equal opportunities including education through college for girls, job opportunities for women, respect for human rights, and for that Afghan assets should be unfrozen, the prime minister said. If the Taliban signed the agreement, Sharif said, “they must respect it.” “This is what law-abiding, peace-loving international community, including myself, expect from them,” he said. “And let’s work together in that direction.”
Relations between Pakistan and the United States have vacillated between strong and tenuous for more than a generation. After 9/11, the two were allies against extremism even as, many asserted, elements within Pakistan’s army and government were encouraging it. Today, former prime minister Khan’s anti-American rhetoric of recent years has fueled anger at the United States in Pakistan and created some setbacks in ties.
In the interview, Sharif said his government wants “good, warm relations” with the United States and wants to work with Biden to “remove any kind of misunderstanding and confusion.” In careful language that reflected his efforts to balance international and domestic constituencies, he sought to distance himself from Khan’s approach – and to reaffirm and restore the kind of ties that he said the people he represents would want.
“What the previous government did, in this behalf, was most uncalled for, was detrimental to Pakistan’s sovereign interests,” Sharif said. “It was definitely not in line with what ordinary Pakistanis would believe and expect.” Separately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that he had reminded the world that climatic induced calamity that befell on Pakistan would not stay here if urgent action was not taken.
On his Twitter handle, the prime minister, referring to his speech at the United Nations General Assembly session, said that he had cautioned the world about the imminent climatic impacts that had been staring at the face of entire humanity. “Let global response not be guided by cameras but empathy and concern for humankind,” he added. “The crux of my speech at UNGA was to warn the world of what stares humanity in the face. The climate-induced calamity Pakistan is facing today will not stay in Pakistan if no urgent action is taken.
Let global response not be guided by cameras but empathy & concern for humankind.” In another tweet, the prime minister maintained that he made it clear to world that Pakistan desired peaceful and good neighbourly relations with India. For this, he said, India should reverse post-August 2019 actions and stop the process of demographic change in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).