Islamabad: In a major embarrassment for the Imran Khan government in Pakistan, his Interior Minister Brigadier (Retd) Ijaz Ahmed Shah has admitted that Pakistan has failed to garner support from the international community on the Kashmir issue. He said that despite Islamabad’s efforts the world ‘rather believes India’.
In an interview with ‘Hum News’ channel on Thursday, Ijaz Ahmed Shah said Pakistan’s ruling elite had destroyed the nation.
“We say that they (India) has clamped curfew, that there is no medicine, but people (world) don’t believe us, and rather believe India,” Ijaz Ahmed Shah said in response to a question on the situation in Kashmir.
Shah’s remarks came after Imran Khan claimed that 58 countries had supported Pakistan over its stand on the Kashmir issue. Khan in his August 26 address to the nation said he will raise the Kashmir issue at every international forum, including at the UN General Assembly.
Shah also said Pakistan had spent millions on proscribed groups like Jamat ud Dawah (JuD) and should bring them into the mainstream. “We have spent millions of rupees on JuD. We need to demotivate the members of the proscribed organisation and bring them into the mainstream,” asserted the minister.
Shah, who is considered as a powerful minister and is both close to Prime Minister Khan and the establishment, said the action has already started against such groups.
Mumbai terror attack mastermind and chief of the banned JuD Hafiz Saeed is facing cases in the courts as part of the government’s decision to ‘control all jihadis’ under the National Action Plan, he said.
However, he refused to comment when asked whether Pakistan government had secretly released Hafiz Sayeed.
PTI