Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan Addresses the Annual United Nations General Assembly Session

Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan delivering a virtual address to UNGA

Rashid Hussain

During the 75th meeting of UNGA, Imran Khan reiterated his will to follow the steps to make Pakistan “Riasat e Madina”; he expressed his anger over blasphemous content spread through a French magazine and social media platforms multiple times in the past. Imran Khan thanked and commended Tijjani Muhammad Bande, former president of the UN General Assembly and Secretary-General for their efforts.

Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan started his virtual speech saying that “we envisaged ‘Naya Pakistan’ to be a model on the principles of the ‘State of Medina’ established by Holy Prophet Muhammad SAWW; a just and humane society where all government policies are directed at lifting the citizens of poverty and creating a just and equitable dispensation. To achieve this goal, we need to have peace and stability.”

Imran Khan said that “UNGA is the only body in the world to help us achieve goals of peace and stability in our neighborhoods. This is also time for us to reflect whether as the United Nations, we have been able to realize the promise we collectively made to our peoples. Today the foundation of the world order; non-use of a threat of unilateral force, self-determination of peoples, the sovereign equality and territorial integrity of states, non-interference in the internal affairs, international cooperation− all these ideals are being systematically eroded.”

Climate Change:

According to Imran Khan, all should come together to deal with catastrophe caused by the factors that worsen the situation of climate change. He said “we believe that driving force in international relations, must be cooperative under the principles of international law and not a confrontation of force. All must emphatically reaffirm our support for multilateralism.” He said that the threat posed to mankind by climate change, unprecedented fires, and flooding, and record temperatures are alarming signals for all, commitments made through the Paris Agreement must be fulfilled and mobilize 100 million US dollars annually as climate finance as it was committed. Pakistan has launched a program to plant the ten billion trees in the next three years as a contribution to mitigating the effects of climate change.

COVID-19:

“The Covid-19 pandemic has illustrated the oneness of humanity; in our inter-connected world, no one is safe unless everyone is safe. Locking down to control the pandemic has triggered the worst recession since the great recession of the last century. In Pakistan, we adopted a policy of smart lockdown; while concentrating on hot spots, we opened up our agriculture sector immediately and then followed it up by the construction sector which employed most of the people. Our government, despite financial constraints, deployed eight billion dollars an unprecedented amount for health services. Today, Pakistan’s response is sited among the success stories in controlling and responding to the pandemic.

Debt Relief:

Prime Minister thinks that debt relief is one of the best ways to create fiscal space for developing countries. “In early April, I called for a global initiative on debt relief. We appreciate the G-12’s official initiative of debt suspension and the emergency and rapid financing offered by the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and United Nations agencies. This, however, is not going to be enough! Additional debt relief measures will also be needed.”

Money Laundering:

He highlighted the importance of coping with the menace of money-laundering. He said the money that could be used towards human development is possessed by corrupt elites and the loss of foreign exchange causes currency depreciation that creates inflation and poverty. He said the powerful money launderers have access to the best lawyers and sadly because they are the beneficiaries; there is a lack of political will in the rich countries to curb this criminal activity. If this phenomenon is unaddressed, this will continue to contribute towards inequality between the rich and the poor nations. I call upon this assembly to take the lead in efforts to build a global framework to stop the illegal financial flows and ensure immediate repatriation of stolen wealth.

Islamophobia and Kashmir Issue:

Prime Minister Imran Khan raised the issue of Islam Phobia prevailing in different parts of the world. “In the name of freedom of speech, our Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad SAWW was insulted, mosques and shrines were demolished and destroyed, and the Holy Quran was burnt, Muslims have been targeted largely. Racial and religious hatred against the vulnerable minorities in various parts of the world is ongoing.

We insist that willful provocation of hate and violence must be universally outlawed, this assembly should declare an international day to combat Islamophobia and build a coalition to fight this curse which splits humanity. India is state-sponsoring Islamophobia backed by the Hindu-extremist RSS ideology. The RSS founding fathers were inspired by German Nazis who adopted their concepts of racial supremacy. The secularism of Gandhi and Nehru has been replaced by the dream of creating a Hindu Rashtra by cleansing India’s 200 million Muslims and other minorities. In 1992, Babri Mosque was destroyed and in 2002, some 2000 Muslims were slaughtered in the Indian province Gujrat under the watch of then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In 2007, 50 Muslims were burnt alive in Smjhota Express Train by RSS in India, Imran Khan said.

“There will be no durable peace and stability in South Asia until the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is resolved based on international legitimacy, the international community must investigate these grave violations and prosecute the Indian civil and military personnel involved in state terrorism and serious crimes against humanity. In order to divert world attention from atrocities and other illegal actions in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, India is now playing a dangerous game, it is increasing provoking LOC violations in a nuclearized environment. But Pakistan has exercised maximum constraint, we have consistently sensitized the world community about a false flag operation and other ill-conceived misadventures of India”, he said and called for long-lasting peace and stability in the region. He also warned that if any attempt made by Fascist, the totalitarian, RSS-led Indian government to attack Pakistan, Pakistani nation will fight for the freedom to the end.

At the end of his speech, Prime Minister Imran Khan highlighted the issue of Palestine also, he said the illegal annexation of Palestinian territories building of illegal settlements imposing inhumane living conditions on Palestinians cannot bring peace to this troubled region. Pakistan supports the United Nations resolutions which are pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Shareef as the capital of a united and independent Palestine state. While talking about the Afghanistan issue, he said there no military solution to it, through dialogues we a durable peace can be achieved for which, Pakistan has contributed in the past and will continue its efforts to bring peace in that region and other parts of the world.