{"id":4849,"date":"2019-09-23T18:24:06","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T13:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/umang.pk\/2019\/09\/pm-imran-talks-economy-us-pakistan-relations-and-kashmir-at-think-tank-pakistan\/"},"modified":"2019-09-23T18:24:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T13:24:06","slug":"pm-imran-talks-economy-us-pakistan-relations-and-kashmir-at-think-tank-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/2019\/09\/23\/pm-imran-talks-economy-us-pakistan-relations-and-kashmir-at-think-tank-pakistan\/","title":{"rendered":"PM Imran talks economy, US-Pakistan relations and Kashmir at think tank &#8211; Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/umang.pk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/PM-Imran-talks-economy-US-Pakistan-relations-and-Kashmir-at-think.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke at an event in the expert group of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The prime minister was in a conversation with Richard N. Haass, the president of CFR. He discussed the current state of relations between the United States and Pakistan, recent developments in occupied Kashmir and Pakistan&#39;s relationship with India, Afghanistan and other neighboring countries.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  one-whole  palm--one-whole  media--stretch   media--embed  \">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ma417QtQHsM?enablejsapi=1&#038;showinfo=0&#038;rel=0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5}\" height=\"300px\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The interview began with Prime Minister Imran saying that his experience as a cricket star had taught him the invaluable lesson of &quot;how to fight&quot; and deal with setbacks.<\/p>\n<p>When asked why Pakistan should repeatedly turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance, the prime minister said: &quot;The moment you have a deficit, whether current or fiscal, means that you are not managing your economy properly [&#8230;] This inability of successive governments to manage our economy is the reason we continue to align with the IMF. &quot;<\/p>\n<p>He said his government had inherited &quot;the biggest current account deficit&quot; in the history of Pakistan and &quot;so the first year has been a real struggle.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I am really proud to say that we have reduced this deficit by almost 70 percent. Now we have an economy that is heading in the right direction,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said that when his party came to power last year, Pakistan was probably in &quot;the worst economic situation&quot; and it was China who helped the country &quot;when we were at the bottom.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We were waiting for a breach,&quot; the prime minister said, adding that China along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had provided funds to strengthen Pakistan&#39;s foreign exchange reserves.<\/p>\n<p>He said the country now has the opportunity to get Chinese industries to move to Pakistan and bring technology. &quot;China has given us a great opportunity to get up from where we are now.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"5d8919a66c0ed\">United States-Pakistan relations, Afghan war<\/h2>\n<p>Responding to a question about the comment of former US defense secretary James Mattis that he considered Pakistan to be &quot;the most dangerous&quot; among all the countries he had dealt with, Prime Minister Imran said: &quot;I don&#39;t think that James Mattis fully understand why Pakistan radicalized. &quot;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  one-whole  palm--one-whole  media--stretch  media--uneven media--embed  \">\n<\/figure>\n<p>&quot;In the 1980s, when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Pakistan, with the help of the United States, organized the resistance to the Soviets. And the resistance was organized by the Pakistani ISI (Intelligence between services) training these militants who were invited everywhere the Muslim world makes jihad against the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;And then we created these militant groups to fight the Soviets. [&#8230;] The jihadists were heroes then. In 1989, the Soviets leave Afghanistan, the United States packs and leaves Afghanistan [&#8230;] and we stay with these groups.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Then comes September 11, and Pakistan again joins the United States in the war on terrorism and now we are forced to persecute these groups as terrorists. They were indoctrinated to fight foreign occupation in jihad, but now, When the United States arrived in Afghanistan, it was supposed to be terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;So Pakistan suffered a real beating on this,&quot; he said, adding that Pakistan should have remained neutral in the conflict. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;Pakistan by joining the United States after September 11 made one of the biggest mistakes,&quot; he said, noting that 70,000 Pakistanis had died in the violence that followed and the country lost hundreds of billions in the economy. &quot;I think the Pakistani government should not have promised what they could not accomplish.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The prime minister said he had always emphasized that there could not be a military solution in Afghanistan. <\/p>\n<p>Faced with a question about the insurgents who were supposedly going from Pakistan to carry out attacks in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Imran said there are about 2.7 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and that there is no real border in the tribal region. &quot;How do we know who enters and leaves?&quot; he asked, saying that Pakistan could not be expected to close the border completely when refugees in such a large number live there.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I don&#39;t think it&#39;s because of Pakistan that the United States could not succeed in Afghanistan, simply because there is a story behind it; it was never going to happen,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The prime minister said it was &quot;painful&quot; for Pakistan that the peace agreement that was about to be signed between the United States and the Afghan Taliban would collapse. He also said that his government learned that the talks were broken in the newspapers and that the United States &quot;at least should have argued&quot; with Pakistan before suspending the talks.<\/p>\n<p>He said he would emphasize in his meeting with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, that there will be no military solution to the Afghan conflict. &quot;For 19 years, if you have not been able to succeed, you cannot succeed in another 19 years,&quot; he added.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"5d8919a66c136\">&amp; # 39; All army-backed policy &amp; # 39;<\/h2>\n<p>Responding to a question about the state of civil-military relations in Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran said the country&#39;s army moved because it was given space &quot;due to the lack of moral authority due to corrupt governments.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>He said that all his policies undertaken since he took office were part of his party&#39;s manifesto. &quot;Every policy of my government, which was [to establish] peace with our neighbors has been backed by the Pakistan army. &quot; <\/p>\n<p>He said it was for the first time during his government that the army cut military spending.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"5d8919a66c14f\">Links between Pakistan and India<\/h2>\n<p>On the future of Pakistan&#39;s problematic relationship with India, Prime Minister Imran said he had approached Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the beginning of his term to have a &quot;restoration&quot; of bilateral relations and base the relationship on mutual trust. .<\/p>\n<p>He said that after the Pulwama attack, he had offered to take action against any indication of India that a Pakistani was involved in the deadly attack. In response, however, &quot;they (India) bombed us,&quot; he said. <\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Imran said his government waited to resume talks until after the Indian elections ended, but then discovered that &quot;India is pushing us to the blacklist of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) to break us.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It was then that we began to think that there was a kind of agenda in progress,&quot; he said, and recalled that India subsequently revoked the special autonomy of Kashmir occupied on August 5. <\/p>\n<p>He added that through his unilateral actions, New Delhi had set aside the resolutions of the UN Security Council, the Simla agreement and its own constitution.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;That was when I said that this is an RSS agenda that they are following,&quot; said the prime minister about the Indian government. &quot;I worry now where the two countries are.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>He said that when two countries with nuclear weapons are in conflict, &quot;anything can happen in such situations.&quot; He said he would ask the UN to play his role because that is why it was created.<\/p>\n<p>Referring to occupied Kashmir, he said that eight million of its residents have been locked inside their homes for 50 days. &quot;How can we talk to India? [in such a situation]&quot;he asked, saying that the least he expects the international community to do is ask India to lift the curfew in Kashmir.  <\/p>\n<p>&quot;I am more concerned about India now than probably even Pakistan, because India is not heading in the right direction,&quot; the prime minister said. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;If you see what has happened in India in the last six years, it is scary for some of us. It is not India that I know of Gandhi and Nehru. It is this ideology that has seized India from Hindu supremacy.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"5d8919a66c164\">Women, minority rights<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking about his government&#39;s efforts to protect women and human rights in the country, the prime minister said they have taken steps to protect minorities and their places of worship.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;My concept of Pakistan is where our minorities are equal citizens and the rights of women and the weakest sections are protected,&quot; he said, adding that his government had introduced the &quot;greatest poverty alleviation program in the history of country despite tax restrictions<\/p>\n<p>He said the country required special packages and programs, and not new laws, to support women and weaker social segments.<\/p>\n<p>In response to a question about minority rights, Prime Minister Imran said there is only one Islam. &quot;There is no moderate Islam or radical Islam,&quot; he emphasized, adding that Islam grants full rights to minorities.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"5d8919a66c17a\">China&#39;s treatment of Muslims<\/h2>\n<p>In response to a question about how Pakistan reconciles its economic relationship with China with the treatment of minority Muslims by the Chinese government, the prime minister said: &quot;With the Chinese, we have a special relationship. We talk about any of these issues.&quot; They in private. We do not make public statements, because this is China. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;And again, China has come to our aid when we were right at the bottom. So I would not speak publicly about that,&quot; he said, adding that &quot;he has enough on my plate&quot; with issues related to the economy. and developments on the borders of Afghanistan, Iran and India.<\/p>\n<p>The prime minister rejected the notion that Chinese investment in Pakistan could damage its sovereignty. &quot;The Chinese have never interfered in any of our foreign policies, in any of our internal policies, for that matter. I think that China is a country from which we can all learn. Its main concentration has been trade and wealth creation.&quot; and raise people&#39;s living standards.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;There have been no demands from China that restrict our sovereignty.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"5d8919a66c18f\">&amp; # 39; Antimilitarist &amp; # 39;<\/h2>\n<p>When asked how he would respond to attacks last week against Saudi oil facilities if asked, the prime minister said: &quot;I am, and always will be, a pacifist. I am anti-war. I don&#39;t think wars solve problems. You will solve a problem; give birth to five other problems. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;Unfortunately, I don&#39;t think wars solve problems. I would do my best to solve this problem through diplomacy.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Imran is on a seven-day visit to the United States to attend the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly that will open on September 24.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/pre>\n<\/pre>\n<p>Source: https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1506899\/pm-imran-talks-economy-us-pakistan-relations-and-kashmir-at-think-tank<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke at an event in the expert group of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York on Monday. The prime minister was in a conversation with Richard N. Haass, the president of CFR. He discussed the current state of relations between the United States and Pakistan, recent developments in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11828],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}