Tag : Pakistan-Tahreek-i-Insaf

Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday emphasised the country's interest in trade and engagement with India saying that Pakistan was isolated on the world stage due to past policies. "Despite a "long history of war and conflict" and the Indian government's actions in occupied Kashmir and its anti-Muslim agenda, it was not in Pakistan's interest to remain disengaged," Bilawal said while speaking at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, a government-funded think tank, the Dawn reported. Referring to the former government of Pakistan-Tahreek-i-Insaf (PTI), he said that the coalition government had inherited an "internationally isolated and internationally disengaged" country, adding "But it was time for pivoting to economic diplomacy and focusing on engagement." "Do we achieve our objectives, whatever they may be; be it Kashmir, be it the rising Islamophobia, be it the Hindutva sort of supremacist nature of the government in India. Does it serve our objective?" Bilawal said. He highlighted the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir and said, "these issues remained the "cornerstone" of Pakistan's narrative and the government was taking them up "in the most serious and most aggressive manner," the Dawn reported. "We have practically cut off all engagement" with India, the Dawn quoted Bilawal as saying. Bilawal further said that if Pakistan had achieved economic engagement with India in the past, it would have been in a better position to influence Delhi's policy and prevented both countries from taking extreme positions. The relationship between the two countries worsened in 2019 after India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir by scrapping Article 370 and bifurcating it into two unio ...