Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said Pakistan wants to pull its people out of poverty and focus on building a peaceful neighbourhood but the RSS-backed Modi government is following an agenda rooted in racial supremacy.
“Racism is often rooted in arrogance and arrogance can lead people to make huge blunders. That’s what Modi has done in Held Kashmir,” he said while talking to the editorial board of Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
“I have come to New York especially for Kashmir. Everything else is secondary. The world doesn’t realise that we are heading for a big disaster,” he said.
India’s repressive and illegal actions in occupied valley will not only have repercussions for the region but for the entire Muslim world, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations Dr Maleeha Lodhi said in a series of tweets quoting Prime Minister Imran Khan speaking to the Wall Street Journal editorial board. “The world should not fear that a peace deal in Afghanistan will take us back to 2001. Peace is the most important goal and we should all pursue it,” the prime minister said, and called for resumption of Afghan peace talks between the United States and the Taliban. In a meeting with Executive Director of Human Right Watch Kenneth Roth in New York on the sidelines of 74th UNGA session, the prime minister said India is making every effort to disturb the demography of Muslim-majority Kashmir. He expressed serious concerns on possible massacre in Indian-held Kashmir after lifting of curfew in the valley.
The prime minister apprised Kenneth Roth that around 15,000 Kashmiri youth have been detained by the Indian security forces to curb their voice for freedom. He called upon the international human rights organisations to pressurise India to allow foreign observers monitor the situation in Kashmir. He said he is in New York as an ‘Ambassador of Kashmir’ and expressed resolve to present the case of oppressed Kashmiris at the UNGA forum forcefully.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that while it is true that illicit financial flows adversely affect wealthy countries, such movement of ill-gotten money is devastating the developing countries across the world.
The prime minister was addressing an event called ‘High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development’ at the United Nations in New York on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly. “I do not think people fully realise the impact it (illicit financial flows) is having on poverty, deaths, destruction and human development in developing countries,” he said, who was welcomed to the dialogue with a huge round of applause from the audience.
He said in the last decade Pakistan has had a corrupt leadership which accumulated more debt for the country in the last 10 years than in the previous 60 years. “We are trying our best to retrieve our money,” the prime minister said, conceding that even when his government has located properties owned by Pakistanis abroad, a number of legal lacunas and loopholes have made it difficult to take such corrupt elements to task. He called upon the developed countries to do better as far as the return of illicit wealth is concerned, saying, “There is a lack of will in the rich countries because they gain from it.” Separately, Foreign Minister of Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov Thursday called on Prime Minister Imran Khan on the sidelines of UNGA session and both sides expressed satisfaction on growing momentum in bilateral relations.
Matters related to further strengthening bilateral cooperation were discussed, a statement issued by the PM Office said. Both Russian and Pakistan maintained close contact on the situation in occupied valley. The prime minister emphasised that situation in Indian-held Kashmir poses a serious risk to peace and stability and the international community must urge India to lift restrictions on Kashmiri population. He noted that Indian officials are making false allegations on presence of terrorists to mislead the world. Both sides also discussed other regional developments and efforts for peace in Afghanistan.