Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent state visit to Malaysia has vindicated the Pakistani government’s stance and dissipated the doubts that the country might lose support of Malaysia, Turkey and Qatar.

With the state visit of the premier Imran Khan, the rumours have also died down that Malaysia was upset over Pakistan government’s decision not to attend Kayla Lumpur Conference. There was lot of discussion, then, about PM Khan’s decision not to travel to Malaysia to participate in the KL summit in December last. The skeptics had maintained that Pakistan was the loser on the diplomatic front and would lose of the time-tested friends.

The truth is the government managed the KL summit situation in the best interests of the country and the Muslim world. All countries involved were on board and understood and respected Pakistan government’s decision to stay away from the Kuala Lumpur conference.

Since then Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has visited Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the US while Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed Bin Zayed visited Pakistan. What more evidence do we need that Pakistan is successful in being the partner in peace to the entire Muslim world and furthering the national interest. The time has proved that it was a right decision to keep the Muslim countries together.

The government kept stressing that Pakistan has a renewed foreign policy approach. We are partners in peace to everyone. We are the country that is able to bring the Muslim world together. And we will continue to help alleviate tensions wherever we can.

Sometimes the optics may not be excellent. Emotive views may not like our rational, strategic approach. But the government is focused on Pakistan s national interests. PM Imran Khan is a statesman and will do whatever is good for the country. Why would Malaysia be so positive about the entirety of our bilateral relationship? You can judge by yourself the positivity around the trip once PM Imran Khan meets Mahathir Mohamad in Kuala Lumpur.