MULTAN - Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Wednesday expressed serious concerns over the Israeli air-strikes on Palestine and urged the United Nations to intervene to end the grave violation of the human rights of Palestinian people. The world body should hold an urgent meeting to take stock of the Israeli attacks on innocent Palestinians, he added.

Pakistan strongly condemned the Israeli army attacks on innocent Palestinians and the entire Muslim Ummah had grave concern over the situation, the minister said while talking to media persons at the res-idence of late Qari Muhammad Abdul Ghaffar Naqshbandi. 

Qureshi said the Palestine issue was discussed with the Secretary General of Islamic Coordination Or-ganization. He called for an urgent meeting of the OIC on the issue. There was need that all the Muslim countries should jointly raise voice over the Palestine issue, which would make the world take notice of the Israel’s flagrant violation of human rights of Palestinians, he added.

The foreign minister said Saudi Arabia had also strongly condemned the attack on Palestinians. Pakistan stood with the Muslim counties on the Palestine issue, he added.

Says Saudi Crown Prince will pay second visit to Pakistan soon

About the prime minister’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia, Qureshi said the Kingdom had decided to invest $ 500 million more to strengthen Pakistan’s energy sector. It would help overcome the imbalance in the country’s energy mix, as the investment for exploring alternative and renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and hydel power, he added.

It would help make the tariff cheap, which would impact the economy positively, the minister noted. Saudi Arabia would also focus infrastructure development and investment in water resources projects in Paki-stan, he added.

Qureshi said the three-day Saudi visit was undertaken on the invitation of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, which had helped defuse the designs of detractors. He said Pakistan had enjoyed good rela-tionship with Saudi Arabia. With the  initiative of Saudi-Pak Strategic Supreme Council, adhoc arrange-ment had now been changed into institutional one, which would base on three pillars, including security & political pillar to be headed by foreign minister, economic outreach led by interior minister and cultural & communication one led by the minister for information & broadcasting, he added.

Qureshi said the Saudi Crown Prince would pay his second visit to Pakistan soon. A delegation of Saudi officials, he said, would visit Pakistan after Eid to be followed by a two-day visit by the foreign minister to finalize arrangements for the Crown Prince’s visit, he added.

 

The foreign minister said Saudi Arabia had allocated special manpower quota for Pakistani workers un-der its 2030 development vision, which would create jobs for hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis.

 

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan and other delegation members also had the honour to pay respect at the Roza-e-Rasool (Peace Be Upon Him) and Hujra Sharif (PBUH), where they prayed for the progress and prosperity of the country. The doors of Holy Ka’aba were also opened for them.

 

Qureshi said his Turkish counterpart called him during his visit to Saudi Arabia that he would discuss the Al-Aqsa Mosque issue with his Saudi hosts. They discussed about convening of an urgent OIC meeting and UN General Assembly session on the issue of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

 

Pakistan had agreed to the Turkish initiative, while Iran, Turkey and Indonesia had backed the stance taken by Pakistan, he added.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan during his meeting with the OIC Secretary General, discussed the Al-Aqsa Mosque issue and stressed the need to unite the Muslim Ummah through the platform of OIC. The issues of Namoos-e-Risalat (Peace Be Upon Him) and Islamophoebia also cane under discussion. It was decided to activate some 65 million Muslims living in Europe to counter Islamophobia, he added.

Qureshi said the issue of visas with Kuwait had been resolved, besides the problems faced by Pakistani families living in that country.

 

He said Iran had lifted ban on import of Pakistani kino, which was in force for last 12 years. It would bene-fit the Pakistani farmers, exporters and the overall national economy, he added.

 

To a question about Shehbaz Sharif, the minister said he (Shehbaz Sharif) should better face the corrup-tion cases instead of going abroad. His brother Nawaz Sharif was allowed to go abroad on Shehbaz’s guarantee on medical grounds. However, Nawaz Sharif appeared to be healthy as evident from his polit-ical activities there. Shehbaz was answerable to the nation in that regard and to the court, which should take notice of the situation.

 

Praying for good health of Shehbaz Sharif, who, he said, seemed to have no such emergency regarding his health. He said the government would not make any compromise with the elements involved in cor-ruption.

 

Qureshi said inflation was the biggest challenge confronting the government, which was taking all possi-ble steps to overcome it. He said a historical Ramazan relief package was given to the people. Steps were being taken to regulate sugar, poultry and others sectors to control their price hike, he added.

He said the prime minister had tasked Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin to devise policies for economic growth and poverty alleviation.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced over Rs 30 billion mega projects for the Multan district and laid the foundation stone of South Punjab Secretariat during his recent visit. The South Punjab Secre-tariat was now realty and no government in future would roll back the step, he added.

 

Qureshi said during a meeting with the prime minister, he discussed about amendments in the Civil Ser-vices Act. He said the quota of jobs would be fixed for South Punjab youth. Separate annual develop-ment plan (ADP) for South Punjab would be presented in the upcoming budget.

He said only 17 percent development budget used to be utilized in South Punjab in past and the rest was spent elsewhere in the province. Now the development fund allocated for South Punjab under the ADP would only be utilized on the projects undertaken in the region, he added.