ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for Information Attaullah Tarar has given credit of “Pakistan’s global turnaround” to the “ideal civil-military relations” the country has under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Addressing a roundtable dialogue on the issue of “Pakistan in the Changing World” on Monday, the minister said the world is taking Pakistan extremely seriously since war with India this May, while the global institutions are praising the economic turnaround of the country.
Referring to the two slogans—“from default to development” and “from isolation to relevance”—he said they have been the guiding principles of the policies pursued by the government under the leadership of PM Sharif.
“In a very short span of time, we have become extremely relevant at global level,” he said, adding the war with India had redefined the country at the global level.
He said the PM’s offer for “impartial and fair investigation” into the Pahalgam incident was the turning point. By offering this investigation just before the world, he said, Pakistan proved that its hands were clean.
“And that turning point had strengthened our alliances and friends and the countries who were on the fence, it made them realize what Pakistan stands for,” he said. He called it a major diplomatic move which was well received all over the world.
He said no other country had sacrificed their 90,000 persons and incurred hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses in its fight against terrorism.
“We are also a wall between terrorists and the rest of the world. So when a Pakistani lays down his life, he lays it down for the motherland but also to make the world a safer place.”
He said Pakistan successfully proved this point during the immense diplomatic engagements-that followed the Pahalgam incident—at the level of prime minister, field marshal and deputy prime minister.
“We saw an aggressive diplomatic change and our diplomacy worked very well because we were taking diplomacy and relations with other countries very seriously.”
