Monitoring Desk: “We (the interim government) plan to hand a better Pakistan over to the forthcoming elected setup than we got it from the previous government. Pakistan cannot survive in such a way that illegal foreigners can live here and we cannot last as a soft state where anybody can come and live and do whatever someone wishes to do. This is not possible anywhere on Earth. We welcome foreigners whosoever they are; but they can come and live through proper channels, with valid visas and travel documents”.
This was expressed by interim Federal Information Minister Murtaza Solangi in an exclusive interview with seasoned journalist and anchorperson in his show PTV Current Affairs Show “Chotha Satoon” here on Friday when the Federal Minister Solangi was asked about the continuity of state action against illegal foreigners living inside Pakistan. Journalist and writer, Murtaza Solangi has vast experience in media management as he also worked as Director General of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC).
Solangi was of the view that the action against illegal foreigners is (was) inevitable because Pakistan could not survive as a country for free for all and stated that the state of Pakistan is (was) firm to send all illegal foreigners irrespective of their nationalities and origins. Commenting on Afghan refugees, he added that this problem is chronic as they had been living in Pakistan since the early 80s but an influx of more illegal/undocumented/unregistered Afghanis had aggravated this problem.
Responding to a question about a crackdown against smuggling of US$, edibles, fuel, sugar, wheat, and vegetables, he was of the view that nobody should consider Pakistan a weak state because Pakistan had won the war against terrorism and fought all battles bravely whenever it was needed and the state had the will and the capacity to enforce the writ of the state and this is what interim government had done and controlled huge smuggling that was eating out Pakistan every passing day. He thought that it was not hard for an interim government to fix traditional ills that had been hampering the security of Pakistan like smuggling or crackdown on electricity and gas theft because the interim government is (was) not afraid of break of its votes since it has no such vote-bank. He hoped that interims would hand over a better Pakistan to the forthcoming elected government that they (interim) got from the previous government.
“We (interim setup) are not afraid of votes—we do not have any lobby and we are not afraid of breach of our votes that is why we had a strong grip over smuggling, and electricity theft and we firmly believe that nobody let Pakistan to be more weaken because it is the land where bones (graves) of our forefathers are buried”, commented Solangi in an emotional tone.
With his featured smile, Solangi answered several harsh questions from anchorperson Jawad Faizi who had been in the field for three decades and the interview was a treat for viewers. When Faizi kept trying to get the answer about future strategy of Solangi that whether he would join politics after the end of the tenure of his interim minister-ship or rejoin his journalistic cadre, Murtaza Solangi dodged Faizi in a befitting manner and left no room for further questions over this issue by stating that he would answer this question when the time would arrive to decide what would be his future stake.
Responding question about Pakistan’s foreign policy over Palestine and Kashmir, Solangi stated that Kashmiris living in Indian Occupied Kashmir would never leave their just struggle for freedom that was ensured by the world and their fight for a free motherland is completely supported by Pakistan diplomatically and morally. “August 5 (2019), aggravated the Kashmir issue when India itself disrespected its own Constitution and abrogated the status of Indian Occupied Kashmir (by adding it to its Union states) but let me add that the desire for freedom cannot be ignored and even Pakistan ever refrains from supporting Kashmiris, subjugated Kashmiris would not end their just fight for their freedom”, commented Murtaza Solangi.
When asked about the death penalty announced by Qatar to five Indians found involved in a state-sponsored spy project and Canadian response over state-sponsored cross-border terrorism of India, Solangi was of the view that Pakistan had been crying that it was the victim of Indian state-sponsored terrorism but the western world thought it was our rhetorical blame on India but now the world had found how deep and how dangerous state-sponsored terrorism India had been doing all over the world.
While commenting on the Palestine issue, he shared his academic viewpoint that the Palestinian issue is (was) a global issue and Palestinian Muslims as well as Palestinian Christians had been fighting for their independent state that had been under constant encroachment by the Israeli state. He was of the view that the Palestine issue is (was) neither an issue of Clash of Civilization nor it is an issue of Muslims versus Jews because Muslims did not subjugate Jews who faced the holocaust in Europe. He believed that the Palestinian issue showed how powerful the Israeli state is (was) in refusing to accept all international norms, basic principles of humanity, and decency, and unfortunately the International scene exposed the fact that big nations do not respect their own stated human rights charters. He was of the view that the world should help Palestinians to reclaim the 1967 boundaries of the Palestinian state otherwise there would be no peace in the Middle East. He was of the view that the media should expose the reality to the global public of what kind of brutal atrocities the Israeli state had committed against humanity in Palestine.
Answering a question about the role of journalism in Pakistan, he thought that democracy and journalism are (were) intervened. “The more powerful the democracy the more flourishing journalism is”, he said.
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