Modi’s war mania not over yet

CHACHRO: Reiterating the country’s desire for peace, and not war, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said the war hysteria of Modi hasn’t come to an end yet and he has created an atmosphere of war.

The premier categorically stated that Pakistan would not be subdued at all and would fight till the end to protect its independence and sovereignty.

“Be it India or any super power, if anyone wants us to be subdued, we and our armed forces would fight to the end. Our people as well as the armed forces are fully prepared,” he warned while addressing a large public meeting in Tharparkar after distributing health cards among the poor families.

The prime minister said Pakistan desired peace and had also sent this message to New Delhi time and again. “We also handed over to India their (captured) pilot, because we do not want war, and also offered Pakistan’s cooperation to India after the Pulwama incident.

He, however, categorically stated that no one should have any misunderstanding that it was due to any fear. “This is a new Pakistan and we want poverty alleviation,” he said.

The prime minister said after coming to power, he talked to Indian prime minister, telling him that the Sub-Continent was facing highest levels of poverty in the world, and that all issues should be resolved through dialogue.

“But I did not know that Modi will do all this after launching his election campaign,” the prime minister regretted.

“If you (Modi) indulged in any bloodshed of Pakistanis to win the elections, there should not be any misunderstanding, we will retaliate,” he warned. Imran Khan said since he was born in an independent Pakistan as against his parents who were born in a slave India, his parents never let him forget this fact.

“When I describe Tipu Sultan as our hero, it is because of the fact that Tipu Sultan opted to fight for independence till his last moment of life, whereas Bahadur Shah Zafar surrendered and accepted slavery,” Imran Khan said.

The prime minister said the government as well as all the political parties in Pakistan under the National Action Plan (NAP) were committed to and had decided not to let any armed group to function in the country.

“We have decided to fully implement the NAP and will not let any armed or militant group use Pakistani soil for terrorism,” he added.

The prime minister said it was a new Pakistan which was aiming to attract investment, giving employment to youth and eliminating poverty. He said since half of the population in Tharparkar belonged to Hindu religion, his government stood with them and would protect them by all means as it considered all the minorities, be it Hindus, Sikhs, Christians etc, as equal citizens and was committed to protecting their rights. He said as his role model was Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who did not want the division of people and was initially a strong advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity, and later he struggled for Pakistan after realising that Congress would not ensure the protection of minorities rights.

The prime minister regretted the treatment of minorities including Muslims and Kashmiris in India under the Modi government and said Today minorities in India are endorsing the views and apprehensions of the Quaid-i-Azam. He said it was the duty of Pakistanis to protect the rights of minorities in line with the vision of Quaid-i-Azam who had dreamt of a country which would ensure equal rights for all without any discrimination of religion, race or creed.

The prime minister also referred to the politics of hatred in Karachi over the last two to three decades and said only one person destroyed peace of Karachi, which would have been a Dubai of Pakistan today, for his personal political gains.

“It was due to that politics of hatred and violence, promoted by only one person, that led to outflow of businessmen and investors from Karachi to Dubai, Malaysia and other destinations,” he remarked.

Similarly, the prime minister said some politicians in Punjab, when faced political hardships, raised the slogans like ‘Jag Punjabi Jag’.

“Even in Sindh when the corruption of rulers is talked about, they use Sindh card,” he remarked.

The prime minister said that unfortunately some leaders in Sindh did not know what the political struggle was? “How a person, who changes his name from Zardari to Bhutto, can know about the struggle,” he remarked. Imran Khan also referred to recent a speech of the PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the National Assembly, delivered in English, and said he (Bilawal) should know that most of the people, especially the members of PML-N and JUI-F, did not fully understand the English language.

The prime minister also rejected the view of the PPP chairman about U-turn and said the true political leaders have to take U-turns to reach the destination and achieve their goals.

He said that if Asif Ali Zardari, who had reportedly secured his $60 million from the Swiss banks after getting NRO from Pervez Musharraf, had taken a right U-turn at that time, he would not be facing courts nowadays.

The prime minister said though the 18th Amendment had empowered the provinces with enough funds, the federal government would do all to provide relief to the people of Tharparkar by all means. Giving the break-up of public kitty, he said, with a total annual budget of Rs5,500 billion, Rs2,000 billion are used for debt-servicing, Rs2,500 billion allocated for provinces, Rs1,700 billion for defence and security, adding, the federal government starts its financial year with a deficit of Rs600 billion.

Imran Khan said it was his first public meeting after the general elections 2018, and he opted to visit Tharparkar as it was one of the most backward districts of Sindh, where 75 percent people were living below poverty line and some 1,300 children had died due to malnutrition over the last three to four years. Imran Khan said his main objective behind the political struggle and reaching the power corridors was to pull the people of Pakistan out of poverty.

He said that 112,000 families of Chachro were getting Sehat Insaf Cards, which would provide them Rs720,000 per annum facility for free of charge treatment of various diseases at public and private hospitals. “We will provide this facility to every family throughout the district,” he added.

The prime minister also announced two mobile hospitals equipped with medical and surgical facilities as well as four ambulances to cater to the medical needs of people in far flung areas of Tharparkar.

In order to address the water problem faced by the people of Tharparkar, he also announced the sanction of 100 reverse osmosis (RO) plants, to be installed in the area. The prime minister said the federal government would also provide electricity to the far flung areas of Tharparkar through solar system, which would also help run the RO plants in the area. He said the federal government would do whatever it could to help lift the people of Tharparkar, who were left behind other areas of the country.

Imran Khan announced the launching of a political campaign in Sindh and invited the political workers and leaders to join Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in serving the people of the province.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi while addressing the public meeting said his message to Modi government was that despite Indian aggression Pakistan wanted peace.

“We can still see the fire of revenge burning in your heart,” he noted.

The minister said the world witnessed that while Prime Minister Imran Khan was focused on western borders with Afghanistan, the Indians attacked from east to distract the attention and the efforts for peace. He said the people of Pakistan knew well how to defend their homeland.

“The philosophy of Imran Khan’s politics is like that of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the vision like that of Allama Iqbal, whereas, the Modi government is burying the philosophy of Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru by replacing their secular politics with racism,” Qureshi observed.

“Imran Khan is focused on the poverty eradication and Modi is thinking only about winning the general election,” he added.

The minister pointed out that even the Indian journalists say the Modi government was trying to bury the “old Hindustan”. “I want to say that we want peace but you have been beating the war drums,” he commented.

Qureshi recalled that in 1971 Indian army had entered Chachro and the local people even saw their tanks.

“I want to tell Modi this is not 1971. In 1971 the ruler was Yahya Khan and today it is Imran Khan,” he said. Talking about the plight of Tharparkar’s people, Qureshi noted that for more than seven decades since independence, the only demand of those people had been the supply of drinking water.

“Billions of rupees are being spent on metro and orange train projects, but here people do not even have water, health and education facilities,” he bemoaned.

He said prevalent illnesses and deaths were also a reason behind the fact that the district’s around 75 percent population lived under the poverty line.

Qureshi thanked the prime minister for launching the health card scheme and expressed the hope that the card would allow many families to spend their hard earned income on expenditures other than health. He said more people in Tharparkar die due to snake bites than those who get killed. But, he added, deplorably the anti-snakebite venom vaccines were not available at the local hospitals.