India trying to destabilize Pakistan through creating religious disharmony: President

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday said India, having a history of hatching conspiracies against Pakistan over the last many years and being perturbed over its economic achievements, was trying to destabilize the country through various means, including the attempts to create religious disharmony.

The political forces in Pakistan should also realize the fact, get united for the country’s sake and instead of maligning the state institutions should stand behind them, he added.

The president expressed these views in an interview with a private television channel (Ary News).

He said India, which through its conspiracies in East Pakistan had divided the country in the past – a fact also recognized by Indra Gandhi and Narendra Modi, was still continuing its attempts to destabilize the country through various means.

The president said India, which had been playing the role of a spoiler in Afghanistan, had problems with all its neighbours, including China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, and had boosted its defence budget to US$ 52 billion.

Besides creating problems in Balochistan through its spies like Kulbhushan Jadhav, India was also trying to create unrest in Karachi, he said, adding the people belonging to Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) led by Altaf Hussain had also accepted the Indian involvement in creating problems in the mega city.

President Alvi also referred to a recent report published in the Foreign Policy Magazine and said the Indian state-terrorism had been exposed in the world.

To a question, he said the economic activities in Pakistan, which was now becoming the geo-strategic economic hub of the region, were affected by the political activities like the last year’s rally of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, that also hurt the Kashmir cause.

To another question, he said be it the COVID-19, uniformity in education or the rights of women and minorities, there was an increased cooperation between the state and the religious scholars.

The president, to another query, said with counter-claims over the NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance), there was a communication gap between the government and the opposition.

He said the statements against national institutions, including the army and the judiciary, were unfortunate and condemnable.

As far as the issues of national interest were concerned, the government, the army and the judiciary were on the same page, he added.

To a question, President Alvi wondered the politicians, who had been walking along the dictators in the past, were now speaking against the army.

To another question about the speeches of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from London, he said he (Nawaz) talked everything, including criticizing the state institutions except the country’s achievements in the areas of economy and coronavirus.

The president mentioned 30% increase in the workers’ remittances in September 2020 as well as the good performance of stock exchange, and said those reflected the confidence of people and investors in the government policies.

About inflationary trends, the president said the government was taking measures to check price-hike and inflation, particularly food inflation.

To a question, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan was committed to root out corruption from the country.