Daily Times

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday said India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was facing imminent defeat in New Delhi polls due to premier Narendra Modi’s contentious moves concerning new citizenship laws.

Addressing a gathering of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) in Karachi, the foreign minister said since the BJP’s victory in the 2019 general elections in India, the party had to “face difficulties” in three state elections. “As for the Delhi elections, where results will be announced tomorrow, it is expected the BJP will face a lot of difficulties and is facing a huge defeat,” Qureshi said.

The foreign minister said there could be several reasons for the BJP facing these setbacks, but particularly highlighted the Indian government’s “cruel” policies in occupied Kashmir and the “countrywide protests that have resulted after the introduction of the CAA and the NRC” as the major reasons.

Qureshi said several countries, realising that India is a huge market, were hesitant in going against their economic interests.

“However, while it is true that everyone speaks of ethics and doing the right thing, their actions are always in line with safeguarding their own economic interests.”

But the foreign minister went on to say that even countries that had deepened their ties with India, were re-evaluating their relationship with the country after the government’s questionable moves in occupied Kashmir and its introduction of discriminatory laws. He further said that India’s economic growth has halved since the BJP came back into power. “We are worried that India may try to stage a Pulwama-like false flag operation to move its own peoples’ focus on Pakistan, instead of on its own economic situation,” Qureshi said. Speaking of economic growth and stability, Qureshi said, “The world will take Pakistan seriously when we are financially stable.

“That is why I am here today, so that we can come up with ways for the foreign ministry to facilitate the finance ministry and other ministries in establishing contact with other countries and forging better ties with them. “This will help us learn from them and also work with them,” Qureshi said while adding that Pakistan has seen deindustrialisation in recent years. “The question is about when this process started. If industries are shutting down now, something must have happened in the past few years to have triggered the process. No one sets an industry up with the feasibility of a year or six months in mind, they think years ahead of time.

“However, I am not here to place blame or play politics, I am here to find a way forward,” the foreign minister said.

Meanwhile, Qureshi said in consonance with the current global realities, Pakistan’s foreign policy was experiencing a paradigm shift with equal focus on economic diplomacy. Addressing a session on ‘The Strategic Importance of Economic Diplomacy for Pakistan in the 21st Century,’ organized here by Institute of Business Administration (IBA-Karachi), he referred to the measures adopted by the Federal Government during the last one and a half years for economic stability. It was equally reflected through a robust and proactive policy approach spearheaded by his ministry to pave way for a stable and secured environment for the national development and prosperity, he added. Economic diplomacy, he said, made things workable and doable in any given situation. From the very onset he knew that without addressing the twin deficits inherited by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government no plausible change could be expected.

“The core concern was why Pakistan cannot cover its import bills and why during the past one and a half decades the country’s export fell from 0.16% to 0.12%,” Qureshi said.

Reiterating that a multi-pronged approach was adopted to address the situation, he said the PTI government, which had assumed power at a critical juncture, adopted a pragmatic approach to leverage the country’s relationship with the world community accruing maximum benefits and minimizing its losses. “With a proper understanding about our deficiencies the government with all the stakeholders concerned are on a single page with regard to elimination of terrorism and restoration of peace.”

It was further being streamlined through a clear policy to help restoration of normalcy in Afghanistan, despite clear signals of an aggressive Hindutva driven agenda promoted on the country’s western borders, he added. The minister, in the most categorical terms, said Pakistan was not going to be a party to any dispute between any two countries. “It is absolutely clear that we can be party to peace only,” he added. Later, to a query, the foreign minister said Pakistan’s efforts to explore new markets for its goods also included Central Asia, accessible through Afghanistan.

In context of marked improvement in the situation in the country, he mentioned that the United Kingdom, the United States, Norway, Portugal and several other European countries had revised positively their travel advisories for Pakistan. One of the most prestigious publications focused on travel and tourism had recently declared Pakistan among the top most attractive destinations, the minister said, mentioning that Prime Minister Imran Khan was personally keen to promote tourism in the country. Tourism in accordance to its true potential was said to be promoted on strong lines with equal attention towards its diversity, he added. Referring to foreign policy achievements in braving adverse economy related challenges during the past one and a half years, he said leverage was created to help achieve much needed oil on deferred payment while friendly countries also came forward with multi-billion dollar investment.

Acknowledging friendly gestures of Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Turkey and China, he said multi-national companies such as Proton, Aramco etc were coming forward with massive investments. He also mentioned Pak-Africa Trade Development Conference held recently in Kenya and jointly attended by him and Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce, Industries and Trade Razzak Dawood. It was said to be an attempt to tap 1.3 billion potential consumers for Pakistan made products that were already in process of being diversified to meet special needs of international markets, he added. Fresh footprints for Pakistani goods, he said, were said being created in different parts of the world through an innovative approach involving the private sector and the enterprising young lot of professionals.