Daily Times

US President Donald Trump’s mediation offer on Kashmir reflected the growing acceptance of bold stance of Prime Minister Imran Khan on genuine national rights and interests, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference, she said effective and solid measures adopted by the PTI government for a corruption-free society, institutional reforms, empowerment of institutions and rule of the law, had markedly helped change the world perception about Pakistan.

“Recognition of Kashmir as a “dispute” reflects a positive change in President Donald Trump’s approach, who through his tweets since assuming US president office and even before, was known for his negative impression about our country,” she said.

Highly appreciative of the successful US visit of the prime minister, Firdous said a leader with immense face-value and credibility due to sheer commitment to his principled stance, has helped combat anti-Pakistan impression, created by ‘strong’ enemies of the country.

“This is because he holds no backlog of corruption,” she said reminding that India over the years had been able to successfully sell its narrative about Pakistan and its support to the struggle of Kashmiris, by hiring lobbyists.

“It is now being successfully countered by Pakistan,” she commented. She said Indian efforts to weaken cause of Occupied Kashmir and get freedom fighters declared as terrorists, had effectively been defeated and added now the international support can be ensured for the just cause of Kashmir and its people. “Imran Khan not only repeatedly kept apprising the international community about Pakistan’s commitment to the cause of peace but through his actions also communicated the country’s absolute firmness in this regard,” she said.

“There is definitely an important role of civil and military leadership and there is a paradigm shift in this regard,” emphasised the PM’s special assistant. Reminding that the US president had also cited Pakistan as a key partner of his country, she said this was again the outcome of proper image-building of the country.

She said, “Imran Khan’s first visit to US as PM is not to procure any aid but to protect interest of the country and this he has well established.” As for statement of US President about Pakistan being a key partner, the Special Assistant said US and Pakistan were important strategic partners in the realm of defence and economy.

“The US is the largest market for our exports and the largest foreign direct investment also comes from US while remittances sent by US based Pakistanis are also a significant contribution,” she added. “Yet, it has been made clear that there would be no compromise at the cost of country’s internal and external interests,” she said. “Gone are the days when national interests were compromised over individual benefits,” she added. To a question about accountability of corrupt people, she said Imran Khan had emphasised that jails should be a means of deterrence and not recreational centres or luxury hotels.

She said that July 25, which had been declared as a day of protest by the opposition, would be observed by the nation as a day of accountability, and added that corruption and wrongdoings of the opposition leaders were increasingly becoming evident.

About the increase in the cost of living, she said no raise had been made on food items and it was almost 80% responsibility of the provincial government to control the situation.

“The federal government will definitely provide all support to the provincial governments in evolving an efficient mechanism against the culprits,” she added.

To a query regarding the no-confidence motion of the opposition against the Senate chairman, she said that treasury benches had submitted a similar application against the deputy chairman, and as per the constitution, the matter was now before the president of Pakistan to decide. About repatriation of Afghan refugees to their homeland, the special assistant said a major headway was made during the last visit of the Afghan president and things would be duly streamlined in this regard.

Regarding the problems faced by the people of Karachi, she said the federal government was giving an additional amount of Rs 200 billion to the Sindh government against its due share for development schemes.