Islamabad, Jan 22, IRNA — Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan addressinga special session of World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday said thatduring a meeting with US President Donald Trump he warned that war withIran would be disastrous.
“War is not the way to resolve issues and the worst thing that could happenis if there is a conflict between Iran and the US and its allies, as itwill be disastrous,” said PM Imran.
“I spoke to President Trump yesterday and I told him that this would bedisastrous for us if this war starts. But he didn’t say anything. I thinkhe understood and sanity will prevail. Conflict in Afghanistan is stillgoing on and any conflict with Iran would be a bigger problem,” he noted.
He said: I do not understand why countries go to resolve differencesthrough military conflicts because the moment you start a military conflictyou don’t know where it is going to go.
“You can start a conflict but you cannot finish it, we have seen Pakistanjoining the US war on terror and I was the one who was objecting to it as Ithought Pakistan should have stayed neutral as Pakistan had nothing to dowith 9/11,” Imran Khan noted.
He added later 70,000 people died and over 100 billion US $ lost andfinally “we realized that we have had made a mistake”.
He viewed if there is a conflict with Iran, oil prices will shoot up andthat will cause poverty all over the world and God knows how long it willgo on.
“We in Pakistan pray that this does not happen we have tried our best wehave already talked to Saudi Arabia we talked to Iran, the US,” he said.
PM Imran Khan added Pakistan is actively playing a responsible role indefusing tensions between the US and Iran.
He said Pakistan has played its part to ease tensions between Iran andSaudi Arabia and the US and Iran. “We try to play our part in easingtensions,” he stated.
PM Khan went on to say Pakistan joined Afghanistan Jihad in 80s which ledto creation of militant groups and once the US left Afghanistan we hadterrorism here and culture of militancy, guns, drugs, sectarian groups camein which caused of lot of damage to us.
He stated that Pakistan will not become part of any conflict in futurerather will be partner in peace.
He added now Pakistan is facilitating Afghanistan peace process andhopefully there would be an agreement between Taliban and the US.
Prime Minister expressing his views said 2019 was the safest year inPakistan after 9/11 and it is reflected in the growth of tourism. He addedPakistan has great tourism potential which is untapped.
He said the government is now focusing on tourism as Pakistan is the mostundiscovered country on terms of tourism in the world. “It is the countrywhich have sacred places for four religions,” he noted.
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PM Khan said currently there is no terrorism in Pakistan, our securityforces did a brilliant job in this regards. “But we need peace andstability in Afghanistan as terrorism comes in Pakistan from Afghanistan,so peace in Afghanistan is good for Pakistan which will allow us to connectto Central Asia,” said the PM.
Imran Khan said economy of Pakistan cannot grow unless there is peace andstability. After nine eleven incident, Pakistan faced the similar dilemmaand seventy thousand Pakistanis sacrificed their lives in terror wave.
Referring to economic situation of the country, he said his governmentinherited fiscal and trade deficits at huge scale.
In order to stabilize the economy, the government took tough decisions,resulting in upward trajectory of stock market, stabilization in value ofrupee and increase in foreign reserves.
He said in one year ease of doing business improved by 28 points as perWorld Bank estimates.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan has a population of 210 million people andsixty percent of our population comprises of youth.
Imran Khan said “we have started skill development programs encouragingyouth to start their own businesses and entrepreneurial projects. We hopeto harness the potential of our youth for economic prowess of the country.”
PM said Pakistan is endowed with rich mineral resources including gold andother deposits and we are now focusing to exploit these fully. He saidapart from minerals, Pakistan is blessed with fertile land whose fullpotential has yet to be explored.
He said with the help of China under China Pakistan Economic Corridor, workis being done in enhancing the agricultural productivity of the country.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan is placed at a very important geostrategicposition. He said with the peace in Afghanistan, Pakistan can tap thebenefits of energy rich Central Asia besides acting as a bridge betweenEast and West Asia.
He added on one side of Pakistan is China, which is the fastest growingeconomy in the world.
“Then we have Iran and hopefully if things settled down and if we have moretrade with Iran both countries will get the benefit,” said Imran Khan.
He went on to say that situation with India is not as it should be addingnormal trade ties between the two countries will benefit both.
