ISLAMABAD – Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Indian Ministerfor External Affairs Sushma Swaraj has admitted that the strike at Balakotdid not kill anybody in Pakistan.
He said that the statement proved Pakistan’s stance and exposed Indian liesbefore the world. He condemned terrorism incidents in Balochistan and addedthat he would not level any allegations without investigations. That is thedifference between responsible and irresponsible behaviors, he added.
The minister said that Indian media created war hype after Pulwama attackin an irresponsible manner while Pakistani media responded maturely. Hesaid that peace was top priority of Pakistan and dialogue was the wayforward to achieving it.
About the recent federal cabinet reshuffle, he said that it was aprerogative of Prime Minister Imran Khan to choose his team, adding that ithappens in democracies.
He said that the economic challenge the PTI government had to face aftertakeover was the severest in the last over seven decades. He said he wouldnot like to comment on the gravity or depth of the economic trouble, addingthat everybody knew what happened during the last 10 years.
He said that the PTI government took steps to stabilize and improve economyand Pakistan’s macroeconomic indicators were now showing continuity.
He said that it would be the sixteenth IMF package that Pakistan wouldavail, only the first by the PTI government. He said that governmentsapproach the IMF upon facing balance of payment problem for economicstability.
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He said that the previous government of PML-N had left an economicblack hole of US$19 billion, adding that huge loans made debt servicing asthe biggest item of the national budgets.
He said that it was high time thatpoliticians start telling the truth to people. He said that the governmentwas facing challenges on internal and external fronts and there were forcesout there who want Pakistan to remain impoverished, and push Pakistan fromgrey to FATF black list.
The governments come and go but all they did was lip service with noanalysis on impact of the FATF on Pakistan economy.
He said that the foreign ministry was employing economic diplomacy in aidof finance ministry to promote investment and bilateral trade in country’sinterests.About the media crisis, he said that media in Pakistan mostly rely ongovernment advertisements contrary to the rest of world where privatesector was the major player. He said that media played an important role instrengthening democracies.
Punjab parliamentary secretary MPA Nadeem Qureshi also spoke on theoccasion.
