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Thursday March 28, 2024

Those having family terms with Modi can’t talk of Kashmir: Farrukh Habib

By APP
July 10, 2021
Those having family terms with Modi can’t talk of Kashmir: Farrukh Habib

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib Friday said that those having family terms with Indian Premier Narendra Modi had no right to talk of the rights of Kashmir.

Addressing a press conference here, he asked PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz to refrain from lecturing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Kashmir policy as she had no right to even discuss it because of her family’s personal relations with the Indian prime minister.

Recalling the time when Nawaz Sharif, as the PM, had preferred to attend Narendra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony and refused to meet the Hurriyat leaders of occupied Kashmir in India, he said the Indian PM was used to attend private functions of the Sharif family.

He said it was Nawaz Sharif, who being Prime Minister of Pakistan, made a deal on Kashmir, adding, it was an open secret now that he used to meet high-profile people from India without bringing into the knowledge of the state institutions.

Farrukh reminded Maryam that Narendra Modi had visited her home in the past after reviewing progress on establishment of a network in Afghanistan which was developed to destabilise Pakistan by carrying out terrorist attacks.

There was another politician, who became chairman on the basis of a ‘parchi’, campaigning in the AJK for the Pakistan People’s Party, he said, asking Bilawal Zardari whether he wanted to introduce culture of corruption and TTs (telegraphic transfers) in the AJK.

To a query, he said the prudent policies of Prime Minister Imran Khan had started paying dividends as the economic growth was on upward trajectory.

Rejecting opposition’s undue criticism of Imran Khan’s Kashmir policy, the minister said the PM had categorically stated there would be no talks with India until it restored pre-August 5 status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

He said: “There were many pressures on us. Even our own local businessmen, who import raw material from India, had a demand for resuming bilateral trade.

“But Prime Minister Imran Khan, while keeping in view sacrifices and struggle of Kashmiris, took principled decision that we would not have any talks with India until restoration of the pre-August 5 status,” he added.

The minister said that the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir would only elect the party whose leader had courage to speak with the US on equal footing and respond Modi in a befitting way, and the one who would never compromise on Kashmir cause.