RIYADH - Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday vowed to hold peace talks with arch-rival India following elections in the neighbouring country, after a similar offer from the former cricketer was “rebuffed”.
Imran Khan made the announcement during a speech at a Saudi Arabian investment conference where the newly minted leader launched a charm offensive targeting potential investors as Pakistan seeks to secure funds amid a yawning balance of payment crisis.
“When I won the elections and came to power the first thing I tried to do was extend a hand of peace to India,” Imran told the crowd at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, saying the overture was later “rebuffed” by Delhi.
“Now what we are hoping is that we wait until the elections then again we will resume our peace talks with India,” he added, referring to upcoming nationwide polls scheduled to take place by mid-May.
Imran said peace between Pakistan and India was important to ensure that resources of the two countries be diverted towards human development rather than wasted in non-productive arms race.
“Peace with India is not just important for Pakistan, but for India as well. The money that should be diverted to human resources ends up in non-productive arms race,” he said.
In September India pulled the plug on a rare meeting between its foreign minister and her Pakistani counterpart on the sidelines of a UN summit - a move that was termed “arrogant” by Imran Khan and unleashed a barrage of insults from both sides.
Imran’s call for peace talks comes as his administration is desperately seeking funds from “friendly” countries, including Saudi Arabia, to shore up deteriorating finances.
During his address at the FII, Imran Khan confirmed that Pakistan was also in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a new bailout.
Imran said Pakistan was creating an enabling environment, undertaking tax reforms and setting up a one-window operation to attract foreign investors in diverse areas.
“This is the best time to invest in Pakistan,” Imran said and added lucrative opportunities were available in diverse areas for the foreign investors.
The prime minister said his 60-day-old government has undertaken a gigantic task of structural reforms to address the issues of mismanagement, corruption, red tape with the sole objective to significantly move the country up on the index of ease of doing business.
The prime minister mentioned the restructuring and re-evaluation of changes in customs duties on different items and provision of better tax incentives so as to make Pakistan more attractive place for investment.
“With its excellent geo-strategic location, Pakistan lies at the confluence of the Middle East, the Gulf and the Central Asian Republics,” Imran told the investors at the Saudi Capital for the two-day investment conference.
He mentioned the large 100 million population under the age of 35 who could serve as a strong workforce for investors in any area. He attributed the little foreign investment in the past ten to fifteen years to mismanagement of the previous governments, corruption and also to country’s involvement in the war against terror. He said several big energy giants like Exxon had returned to the country.
He said the government was ensuring that things improve by the day and all facilities were available to the foreign investors. He said Gwadar was the second deepest port in the region and offered easy access to China and, with improvement in ties with Afghanistan, to the Central Asian Republics.
He said the China Pakistan Economic Corridor would serve as a huge incentive for foreign investors who could invest in many areas and benefit from the access to several regional markets from Pakistan.
He mentioned energy, minerals, infrastructure and housing sectors which offered great incentives. He said his initiative of building five million houses in the next five years would generate lots of economic activity, create employment opportunities and help the country provide shelter to the poorest of its poor.
Imran said Pakistan also had rich reserves of oil and gas, gold and copper that needed to be exploited and could help turn around the country’s economy.
A strong proponent of tourism, Imran said with 12 climatic zones and a range of geographical wonders like the highest peaks in the world to the deep blue waters in Gwadar, there was a great scope for investment in the tourism sector.
Imran said in his talks with the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, he was informed that a large delegation of Saudi investors would soon visit Pakistan and said they would be comprehensively briefed about the incentives and opportunities available.
He also acknowledged the high-level talks between the two countries for setting up an oil refinery in the country and said Pakistan currently requires two large refineries to cope with its growing requirements.
He said Saudi investors in this regard had already visited Pakistan.
He said owing to the great sacrifices by the security forces, Pakistan was today a safe and secure country.
Imran said the incidents of terrorism were today negligible and said the few that occurred had links to Afghanistan. He hoped that a success in ongoing peace talks with the Taliban and the Afghan government and the United States, the situation would improve further.
To a question, he said developments in the information technology were an area of focus for the new government and it was undertaking several initiatives to encourage the youth acquire latest skills in the field.
He said Pakistan currently faced two serious problems; the current account deficit and the fiscal deficit and said it was currently in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package.
He said his government was also in contact with friendly countries to get funds to help it repay the huge loans borrowed by the previous governments. “We have a tough period ahead, but with our structural reforms in place and the funding, we will be able to improve the situation in three to six months,” he said.
He said Pakistan was looking forward to bolster its forex reserves by strongly clamping down on money laundering, ending corruption and boosting its exports by providing the exporters incentives.
He attributed most of the ills afflicting the national economy to the rampant corruption in the past and said getting white-collar crime was a tough job to do and hoped with the strengthening of institutions, the money being siphoned off from development to corruption would end.
When asked about his forthcoming visit to China, Imran Khan said he looked forward to learning from its experience how it tackled its poverty and measures to end corruption.
He said in 30 years China brought out 700 million of its population from poverty and at the same time convicted over 400 of its ministers and officials on charges of corruption.
Imran said the State of Madinah was his ideal and he looked forward to put in place a system where merit and justice prevailed and said his “Naya Pakistan” was aimed at bringing back to what the country’s founding fathers stood for.
Imran hopes talks with India after elections