Sustainable peace & stability in SA however remains contingent upon a just and lasting solution of J&K dispute: PM Shehbaz
NEW YORK, Sep 23 (SABAH): Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has said that we look for peace with all our neighbors including India, sustainable peace and stability in South Asia however remains contingent upon a just and lasting solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
This was stated by PM Shehbaz Sharif while addressing the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday. PM Shehbaz Sharif said we expect some approximation of justice for the loss and damage by this calamity that has not been triggered by anything we have done.
The Prime Minister said due to this global challenge, our glaciers are melting fast, our forests are burning, and our heat waves have crossed 53 degree C, making us the hottest place on the planet.
He said during the recent calamity, for 40 days and 40 nights a biblical flood poured down on us, smashing centuries of weather records, challenging everything we knew about disaster, and how to manage it.
The Prime Minister said this calamity has pushed some 11 million people below the poverty line, while others will drift to cramped urban shelters, leaving little room for climate-smart rebuilding.
He said even today, huge swathes of the country are still under-water, submerged in an ocean of human suffering. In this ground zero of climate change, 33 million people, including women and children are now at high risk from health hazards, with 650,000 women giving birth in makeshift tarpaulins.
The Prime Minister said more than 1500 of my people have perished in the great flood, including over 400 children. He said early estimates suggest that more than 13000 kilometres of metaled roads have been damaged, over 370 bridges have been swept away, a million homes have been destroyed and another million damaged.
More than a million farm animals have been killed and four Million acres of crops have been washed away, stripping the people of their breadbasket, and damage of an unimaginable scale.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan has never seen a more stark and devastating example of the impact of Global Warming. He said as the Secretary General Antonio Guterres so candidly said, hotspots like Pakistan fall in the ten most climate-vulnerable list of countries, but emit less than one percent of the greenhouse gasses that are burning our planet. It is therefore, entirely reasonable to expect some approximation of justice for this loss and damage, not to mention building back better with resilience.
The Prime Minister expressed profound gratitude to the UN SG Antonio Guterres for visiting Pakistan and spending time with climate refugees and assuring his support and assistance. He also thanked each and every one of the countries that have sent help, and their representatives to Pakistan to stand in solidarity with us in our most trying hour.
The Prime Minister said for now, we have mobilized all available resources towards the national relief effort, and repurposed all budget priorities including development funds, to the rescue and first-order needs of millions.
Cash transfers to the most affected, 4 million women heads of household, has begun weeks ago via our social security program, the Benazir Income Support Program, amounting to 70 billion rupees. But at this point, the gap between our urgent needs and available resources is amplified by the sheer, unprecedented scale of the disaster.
The Prime Minister said he is fully committed to fighting this battle for our survival, in the tents and trenches with my people, until we have rebuilt Pakistan to face the growing challenges of this century.
He said Pakistan’s urgent priority right now is to ensure rapid economic growth and lift millions out of destitution and hunger. To enable any such policy momentum, Pakistan needs a stable external environment and we look for peace with all our neighbours, including India.
PM Shehbaz Sharif said that at the heart of this longstanding dispute lies the denial of the inalienable right of the Kashmiri people to self determination. He said that India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5th August 2019 to change the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir and to alter the demographic structure of the occupied territory further undermined the prospects of peace and enflamed regional tensions, adding that the India’s ruthless campaign of repressions against Kashmiris has continued to grow in scale and intensity. PM Shehbaz Sharif said that in pursuance of this heinous goal New Delhi has ramped up its military deployments in occupied Jammu and Kashmir to 0.9 million troops; thus making it the most militarized zone in the world. He said that the serial brutalization of Kashmiris takes many forms, extra judicial killings, incarceration, custodial torture, indiscriminate use of force, deliberate targeting of Kashmiri youth with pallet guns and collective punishments imposed on the entire communities. He said that in a classic settler colonial project, India seeking to turn the Muslim majority Jammu and Kashmir into a Hindu territory through illegal demographic changed millions of fake domicile certificates have been issued to non-Kashmiris, Kashmiri land and properties are being ceased, electoral districts have been Jeri banded and over 2.5 million non-Kashmiri illegal voters fraudulently registered. He said that all this is blatant violation of security council’s resolutions and international law, particularly the 4th Geneva Convention, for our part, the Pakistani people have always stood by our Kashmiri brothers and sisters in complete solidarity and will continue to do so no matter what until their right to self determination is fully realized in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. PM Shehbaz Sharif said that he assure the world forum and this august platform that we in Pakistan remain consistent in our commitment to peace in South Asia. He said that India must take credible steps to create enabling environment for constructive engagement, adding that we are neighbors therefore ever choice is ours whether we live in peace on keep in fighting with each others, adding that we have had three wars from 1947 onwards and as a consequence only miseries, poverty and unemployment increased on both sides. He said that it is up to us to resolve our differences, or problems or issues like peaceful neighbors through peaceful negotiations and discussions and save our scarce resources for promoting education and health and employment to millions of people young boys and girls on both sides of divide and not waste our resources in buying more ammunition and trying to promote tension in this area, adding that it is high time that India understands this message loud and clear that both countries are armed to the teeth, war is not an option, it is not an option, it is not an option, only peaceful dialogue can resolve issues so that the world become more peaceful in time to come.
Shedding light on Afghanistan’s issue, the Prime Minister said Afghanistan today presents a unique challenge as 30 million Afghans are left without a functional economy and banking system that allows ordinary Afghans to make a living to be able to build a better future.
He said Pakistan would also like to see an Afghanistan which is at peace with itself and the world, and which respects and nurtures all its citizens, without regard to gender, ethnicity and religion.
He said Pakistan is working to encourage respect for the rights of Afghan girls and women to education and work. Yet, at this point, isolating the Afghan Interim Government could aggravate the suffering of the Afghan people, who are already destitute.
The Prime Minister said constructive engagement and economic support are more likely to secure a positive response. He said a peaceful, prosperous and connected Afghanistan is in our collective interest. As a neighbor, Pakistan has a vital stake in peace and stability in Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister said we must avoid another civil war, rising terrorism, drug trafficking or new refugees which none of Afghanistan’s neighbors are in a position to accommodate.
He also urged the international community to respond in a positive way to the UN Secretary-General’s appeal for 4.2 billion dollars in humanitarian and economic assistance to Afghanistan, release Afghanistan’s financial reserves, essential to revive its banking system.
PM Shehbaz Sharif said that he must say loud and clear that the amount of sacrifices Pakistan has made over the period of time has been unprecedented in the contemporary history of Pakistan. He said that peace restored back in Pakistan after great sacrifices is not only for Pakistan it is a peace for global countries and global community and we are very proud of it. He said that this is the biggest manifestation of our commitment, our concern and our continued efforts to defeat terrorism wherever it is.
PM Shehbaz Sharif said that Islamophobia is a global phenomenon, adding that since 9/11 suspicion and fear of Muslims and discrimination against them have escalated to epidemic proportions. He said that the officially-sponsored campaign of oppression against India’s over 200 million Muslims is the worst manifestation of Islamophobia, they are subjected to discriminatory laws and policies, Hijab bans, attacks on mosques and lynching by Hindu mobs, adding that he is particularly concerned about the calls for genocide against India’s Muslims by some extremist groups. He said that earlier this year, this assembly adopted a landmark resolution introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the OIC designating 15th March as the international day to combat the Islamophobia. PM said that it was his sincere and adorned hope that this should lead to concrete measures by the United Nations and member states to combat Islamophobia and promote the interfaith harmony.
PM Shehbaz Sharif said that Pakistan is deeply concerned by the numerous conflicts across the Middle East including in Syria and Yemen, we support all possible efforts to promote their peaceful resolution, we call on Israel to put an immediate end to the blatant us of force and flagrant violation of human rights of the Palestinian people and the repeated desecration of the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque, the only just comprehensive and lasting solution of the Palestinian question is the acceptance of a viable independent and contagious Palestinian state with the pre 1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
PM Shehbaz Sharif said that the Security Council and General Assembly must be empowered to play their respective roles under the UN Charter. He said that the Security Council must be expanded by adding 11 new non-permanent members to make it more representative, democratic, transparent, effective and accountable. He said that adding new permanent members will paralyze the council’s decision making and large its representation deficit and create new centers of privilege in violation of principle of sovereign equality of the member states.
PM Shehbaz Sharif said that we must restore peace in Europe, avoid a war in Asia and resolve festering conflicts across the world, adding that we must revive the vision which created the United Nations, a vision which is often blurred by national interest and hegemonic designs.
PM Shehbaz Sharif said that Pakistan is a partner for peace but peace can only be ensured and guaranteed when rights of communities who have been suffering from decades or subjugated over decades get their freedom, earn their freedom
PM Shehbaz Sharif said that we want to have peace with India but long-lasting enduring peace can only be ensured and guaranteed through a just and fair solution of Kashmir providing voice to the people of Kashmir under UN Charter, according to Security Council Resolutions, the right of self determination, adding that he will be most forthcoming to sit down then and talk to our Indian counterparts to pave the way forward for future so that our generations do not suffer, so that we spend our resources on mitigating miseries, on building structures to face these floods and outburst of clouds. PM Shehbaz Sharif said that we are developing societies, we do not have unlimited resources, we must deploy our resources for the well being of the people, for our children, for their promotion, for their empowerment, for their employment, for health and education.