Afghanistan heading towards new disaster: NSA

ISLAMABAD: National Security Adviser (NSA) to the Prime Minister Dr Moeed Yusuf on Wednesday said there were no military bases of China in Balochistan, rather there were economic bases there where any country could invest.

“Let me clarify that there are no military bases offered to China in Balochistan, including Gwadar. Yes, there are economic bases and the same were also offered to the United States, Russia and Middle East and we are open to all the countries,” the NSA said in an interview with the BBC.

He maintained that China was a close friend of Pakistan and they had invested there. “CPEC is what, it is road infrastructure and energy infrastructure and anybody can come and invest there, we are not closed to anybody,” he said.

Moeed Yusuf maintained that the two countries have very critical strategic relations which have been going from strength-to-strength and those relations were not at the cost of any other countries. “This is what Geo Political Paradigm is,” he said.

The interviewer observed that Pakistan had entered into very strategic commitments in the long run. He observed that the two countries have made strategic engagements in the form of 60 billion dollars, in form of economic infrastructure.

The questioner also asked whether Pakistan was developing relations with China at the cost of its principles of supporting the rights of Muslims in the world. “You raise voice for Kashmiri Muslims but refuse to condemn violation of human rights in a Chinese province,” the interviewer asked.

Moeed said that Pakistan did not accept the Western version of human rights violations in Xinjiang province and if they have any concerns, they should talk to China. “We have relations of trust with China and our ambassador and other delegations from here also visited the Xinjiang province,” he said.

On Kashmir, he said he would continue to talk about human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir as they were his own people and not of any other foreign country. To a question, the NSA once again made an appeal of humanitarian assistance for the Afghan people. He said Afghanistan was heading towards new disaster, adding the West should change its attitude. “If there is a government of people who fought against America and other western countries, there are also 35 to 40 million people who have nothing to do with it,” he said, adding they needed to be fed immediately. He observed that there was no issue of pledged money for the Afghan people. “There is huge pledged money which cannot get into Afghanistan. There are 19 channels, including the United Nations, which cannot function, then how people there can be fed,” he questioned.