File photo courtesy PPP Media Cell
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari—who is also chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)—on Sunday reiterated his desire to see Parliament complete its constitutional term, stressing that there is no need for early elections.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera News, Bhutto-Zardari said it was important for Pakistan’s democratic process for assemblies to complete their terms unless there was an urgent need for them to be wrapped up early. Noting that there was no current urgency for fresh elections, he said snap polls would only further the agenda of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, and not democracy.
Rubbishing Khan’s allegations of a U.S. conspiracy being responsible for his ouster, the PPP chief said political leaders were supposed to speak the truth to their people instead of coming up with such absurd narratives. “Imran Khan’s accusations on the U.S. were for political purposes,” he said, emphasizing that for the first time in Pakistan’s history, a prime minister had been removed constitutionally through a vote of no-confidence, rather than a coup or court order.
Lamenting that the PTI-led government’s “failed foreign policy” had isolated Pakistan from the rest of the world, he said the incumbent government was looking for solutions to internal problems and consensus at the international level. Maintaining that the incumbent government had inherited a “divided country” from its predecessor, he said addressing these challenges required the nation to unite. No single political party or individual could address the situation alone, he stressed, which is why so many parties had united in the ruling coalition in a bid to steer the country toward prosperity.
To a question, the foreign minister said Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIJOK) was an unfinished agenda. “Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election, the space for Muslims in India as well as Kashmir was shrinking,” he said, adding that the people of Pakistan and Indian wished to live in peace. To achieve that though, he stressed, it was essential to respect international laws and conventions to address the issue of terrorism and extremism.
On Afghanistan, Bhutto-Zardari said Pakistan was engaging with the war-torn country in its own interests, as well as those of the entire surrounding region. Regretting that the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was using Afghan soil to stage terror attacks in Pakistan, he said Islamabad would work with the interim Afghan government to address challenges posed by terrorist outfits.