Prime Minister Imran Khan stands behind overseas Pakistanis, says Fawad Chaudhry

In an exclusive interview during his visit to the Gulf News office in Dubai on Friday, the outspoken Federal Minister of Pakistan openly spoke about a wide range of topics. He discussed about Pakistan’s intention to develop friendly relationship with India, achievements of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government, energy solutions, price hike, tourism, trade, humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, regaining ‘self-respect’ for Pakistanis and increasing involvement in foreign affairs.

Following are excerpts from the interview

On care for overseas Pakistanis

I must tell you that Prime Minister Imran Khan has given clear instructions to all the diplomats in our missions abroad that they would remain on jobs only if overseas Pakistanis are satisfied with their work. Prime Minister Imran gives great importance to our countrymen working abroad by listening to their issues and resolving them on priority basis. He has regained ‘self-respect’ for Pakistani working abroad due to his solid backing for them.

PM Imran is personally monitoring facilities for our people living and working abroad. We have given them the right to vote and are trying hard that they cast their vote in the next general elections. We have made it easier for them to get passports, ID Cards and power of attorneys online without the need to visit the embassies and consulates.

We are bringing completely new concept of ‘overseas Pakistanis investment’ in Pakistan to keep them safe from any ‘fake’ or fraudulent realty schemes. We have already acquired land in Islamabad and are in the process of getting more land in Karachi, Lahore and other major cities for Pakistanis living abroad. The prime minister will soon unveil new dedicated investment schemes for Pakistanis living abroad.

On price hike

While price hike is a concern for some segments of society in Pakistan, it is an international problem now as every country is facing the heat of price hike since COVID-19 hit the world. While global economy is still under a lot of strain, Pakistan has done well. Its economy saw a 5.3 per cent growth last year. This is an important landmark that we have achieved on the economic front.

On PM Imran Khan’s visit to UAE

Prime Minister Imran khan will soon visit the UAE, though the dates have not yet been confirmed. UAE is the second home for Pakistanis and PM Imran has many friends here. His visit will definitely help grow the economic relations between the two countries.

Tourism and the Murree incident

Tourism is one of the top items on the agenda of development for our prime minister. After the unfortunate incident of Murree (where some 22 people died in cars during a snowstorm), we are working on a comprehensive plan to avoid any such incident in the future. Influx of tourists has been overwhelming, especially in hilly resorts such as Murree in Islamabad. We are in the process of introducing several safety guidelines for tourists to ensure hassle-free tourism.

Three big achievements

1. The biggest achievement is that Prime Minister Imran Khan has changed the direction of the economy on the right path towards development. Earlier, ours was a service-based economy with focus on imports, but now Pakistan’s economy is standing on its feet with a significant rise in exports, especially textiles.

2. Pakistan is playing a greater role in world affairs now due to our solid foreign policy. Pakistan has regained ‘respect’ at the international level due to our prime minister’s stance on international policies.

Friendly relations with India

Even with regard to India, we have a very clear policy that we want good relationship with India as people from across the border also want the same for they have a lot in common with people in Pakistan. We want to be trade partners with India as both countries can benefit from this. Together, we can become one of the largest markets in the world.

We should work on the long-pending project of the TAPI gas pipeline, as it would help resolve energy crises in both the countries. (The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Natural Gas Pipeline, TAPI, aims to export up to 33 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year through a proposed approximately 1,800km pipeline from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.) Taliban government has already endorsed the project and we are ready to extend this gas pipeline to India. Our friendly relations with India can be a game changer in the region.

3. Another major contribution of PM Imran is that the focus is back on the environment narrative in Pakistan. Imran Khan is the only PM who speaks about environment and has made drastic changes in polices to tackle environmental issues. We are now talking about green economy and this is not an easy shift, given the resources.

On humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is in a shambles. Global aid agencies, including the United Nations, have predicted that humanitarian crisis is getting worse in Afghanistan. Countries around the world need to work together to resolve this issue. We had a special session of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) foreign ministers recently and have been successful in garnering support from all. After the session, the UN also launched $5 billion (Dh18.39 billion) appeal to help Afghanistan cope with its worst ever-humanitarian crisis.

We have also asked the Taliban to have an inclusive government representing all segments of society. We have asked them to include Uzbek and Tajik communities in their government to ensure a smooth sailing.

About the visit to Gulf News office

I am very impressed to visit Gulf News in Dubai. I have not seen such a huge set-up of a newspaper office, which is technologically so advanced — with robots at work. It was indeed a pleasure meeting the team at one of the largest newspapers’ in the region.

On the film festival

I am visiting Dubai to inaugurate the Pakistani music and film festival at Expo 2020 Dubai. The week-long film festival will feature our films at the Pakistan Pavilion. I expect visitors from different nationalities to come and watch our movies. Expo 2020 Dubai has given us a huge opportunity to showcase our film and music industry here. The festival will help bring Pakistani films closer to film producers in the UAE. We are also looking at joint production opportunities to develop our film and music industry.