Malik for consensus on internal security, foreign policy

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Interior Chairman Senator Rehman Malik proposed consensus legislation on the issues of internal security, foreign policy, economy, water management, education and health so that the policies on these could continue despite the change in the governments.

“Once consensus legislation on these issues is made then no successive government could change the continuation of the policies on internal security, foreign policy, economy, water management, education and health,” he said in an interview to The News/Jang on Tuesday.

Malik said, “The nation’s future lies in six points — internal security, foreign policy, economy, water management, education and health — and to remove the hurdles in the way of prosperity of the country and difficulties. We should move ahead with consensus on the national issues to live with the honour in the world so that we should not be stand in the last line at the international airports due to green passport.”

The PPP leader said the country had sustained losses due to carrying out of the ad hoc polices in the past but “now should have move towards long-term planning and policies to put the country on the path of development and prosperity”.

He said the country external debt stood at $200 billion, international debt at Rs 9 trillion, other debt in the shape of issuance of different bonds and more than Rs 1 trillion circular debt just because of the mistakes of the previous governments. “The mistakes of the previous government are still haunting the people of Pakistan and so there is a need to create consensus on national issues so that long-term policies be devised which continue in the future government,” he said.

To a question, Malik said there was no democracy but lotacracy in the PTI and the majority of the party members were those had left the PPP. “The PTI wanted to bring the change with the turncoats of the PPP and in the presence of the PPP turncoats around Imran Khan shows that that Imran Khan had joined the PPP,” he remarked.

He said the PTI always levelled allegations against the PPP and the people rightly questioned that “those who have joined the PTI are now clean”.

Malik said people were being cheated in the name of the electable as those who claimed themselves as a electable sold the vote and did not have any commitment with the people and even the party whom they joined as they were committed to themselves only.”‘The people should elect their own representatives, not those who cheat them,” he said.

Malik expressed his fears about the future of parliamentary system if there was any rigging in the upcoming elections. “I fear that if the elections were rigged then it will have the serious consequences for the parliamentary system and bring the presidential system,” he warned.

He said the people should vote those candidates who did not change their loyalties and sell the votes to others. “Lotacracy means negation of democracy,” he said.

On the issue of the water aggression by India, he said the Indian prime minister was taking steps against Pakistan as first he created rift in the relation between Pakistan and the United States and later used the FATF. “India as per plan is working on agenda of destroying agriculture sector and to create a energy crisis in Pakistan,” he said.

He said, “It was our hard luck that we failed to stop the construction of the Kishanganga Dam despite the Indus Basis Treaty and our case in the World Bank was not even heard. We even provided data to show that how much Pakistan will sustain a loss due to the Kishanganga Dam and even when get addition 10 days to provide the requisite data, we failed to provide the data to World Bank,” he said.

He added that the Pakistan delegation waited for 10 days to meet the World Bank president but did not get time, which was a failure and action should be taken against the responsible officials.

He said the water in Jhelum River had reduced by 27 per cent due to the Kishanganga Dam and it would also affect the greenery in Neelum Valley. “It will also affect the production of energy by 30 per cent in the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project,” he said.

Malik said it was regretful that the country failed to create a consensus on Kalabagh Dam.

Commenting on Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa’s visit to Afghanistan, he said establishing of contact with Afghanistan was a positive development and Kabul would have to move ahead for good relation relations with Pakistan while leaving the past behind.

He said unless and until there was a single US soldier in Afghanistan there would be no peace in that country.”‘The US has to leave Afghanistan for peace in the region as peaceful Afghanistan means peaceful Pakistan,” he said.

Malik said Afghanistan should have to realise that India did not want peace and it was India which was responsible for the worse relation between Islamabad and Kabul.

To a question about the security concerns during upcoming general elections, Malik said Taliban were the biggest threat in the 2013 elections and Daesh had replaced them in 2018. “The provincial governments have to make foolproof security arrangements on the polling day for the voters and polling staff,” he said.

He said the monitoring of 85,000 polling stations should be made through CCTV cameras,

To a question with regard to regional situation, Malik said the US sanctions on Iran and India’s water aggression were real issues in the region.

He said there was a need to revise the country’s foreign policy to end the diplomatic isolation and to improve diplomatic relations with the countries in Europe and Middle East. “I in one of my speeches stated that the US will never attack North Korea and now the US shook hand with North Korea and gave a clear message,” he said.

He said Pakistan should also learn the lesson from it and focus on improving relations with all the countries to end the diplomatic isolation.