NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania, Mar 16 (NNI): Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has called for setting up a committee of Organization of Islamic Cooperation to devise a strategy for sustainable growth and development of all member countries.
\nAddressing OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) at the two-day 49th Session of the CFM in Nouakchott, Mauritania, the Pakistani Foreign Minister said the Muslim countries must instill sustainability, acquire modern knowledge and advance in digital capabilities.
\nHe mentioned that Pakistan has already initiated an agreement for collaboration between OIC and Digital Cooperation Organization.
\nThe Foreign Minister said as most of the Muslim countries face economic crisis, we must endeavor to achieve economic independence and develop a clear strategy in collaboration with developed countries and international partners to secure equity in international financial rules and structures.
\n\u201cWe must also demand a speedy debt restructuring for 60 financially vulnerable countries, the redistribution of unutilized SDRs (Special Drawing Rights) to developing countries, large lending by multilateral development banks, massive public-private partnership investments, sustainable infrastructure and the mobilization of the promised climate financing of US$100 billion,\u201d he said.
\nThe Foreign Minister said Pakistan had been hit hard by the devastating floods last summer after facing the negative impacts of COVID, inflation, economic collapse in Afghanistan, and consequences of the Ukraine war. He thanked the brotherly Islamic countries for their generous support for Pakistan in the hour of need.
\nAs regards the Palestine issue, the foreign minister said the OIC member states must continue to condemn Israel\u2019s repeated aggression against the Al Aqsa Mosque and in the occupied Palestinian territory. The people of Palestine must have their own state within the 1967 borders with Al Quds Alsharif as its capital. \u201cThis may seem a daunting task today, yet I am convinced that the arc of history in the hand of Almighty tends towards justice.\u201d
\nRegarding the Kashmir issue, FM Bilawal said the United Nations Security Council had adopted a resolution that the people of Jammu and Kashmir must be able to exercise the right of self-determination through a UN-sponsored plebiscite. However, India moved away from its commitment to implement the decision, and resorted to fraud and force.
\nThree years after India\u2019s unilateral and illegal measures of August 5, 2019, he said, it was evident that its campaign of colonial expansion had failed. It would never succeed and the people of Kashmir would win in their struggle for freedom and self-determination, the foreign minister added.
\nHe said Kashmir and Pakistan were bound by geography, faith, history and culture, and Pakistan would continue to extend its full political, diplomatic and moral support for the Kashmiris\u2019 freedom struggle.
\nHe said the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir and the OIC Secretary General and his special envoy had made valuable contributions in projecting and advocating the just cause of the Kashmiri people. \u201cI am confident that the OIC Contact Group, when it will meet later here will adopt an effective plan to promote the just cause of Kashmir.\u201d
\nHe said without the resolution of the issue, durable peace between Pakistan and India was not possible
\nOn Afghanistan, the foreign minister said Pakistan had done everything possible to prevent a major humanitarian crisis and economic collapse in that country.
\nThe OIC, he said, should contribute to drawing up a clear pathway for peace in Afghanistan to encourage the Afghan interim government to fulfill the earlier promises; to fully respect human rights, particularly women rights; promote political inclusivity; and eliminate the terrorist threat of the Daesh, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other terrorist groups in the country.
\nThe minister also called for addressing conflicts and disputes within the Islamic world, saying those conflicts \u201cerode our unity and solidarity, fuel terrorism and extremism and deflect our attention from development\u201d.
\nPakistan, he said, warmly welcomed the agreement reached by Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore diplomatic relations and the constructive role played by the Chinese leadership.
\n\u201cIt is time to join together to restore peace in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Libya, and to this end, the OIC must strengthen its security mechanism to promote solutions through dialogues,\u201d he said.
\nTalking about Islamophobia, FB Bilawal said he had urged the UN secretary-general to formulate an action plan to halt Islamophobia.
\nHe informed that Pakistan would host the 18th OIC trade fare in June this year and would also look forward to hosting the OIC ministerial conference on women empowerment later this year. NNI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania, Mar 16 (NNI): Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has called for setting up a committee of Organization of Islamic Cooperation to devise a strategy for sustainable growth and development of all member countries. Addressing OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) at the two-day 49th Session of the CFM in Nouakchott, Mauritania, the Pakistani […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[3,13,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/english.nni-news.com.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/english.nni-news.com.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/english.nni-news.com.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/english.nni-news.com.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/english.nni-news.com.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/english.nni-news.com.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":953,"href":"http:\/\/english.nni-news.com.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions\/953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/english.nni-news.com.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/english.nni-news.com.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/english.nni-news.com.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/english.nni-news.com.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}