ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari urged stakeholders to prioritise national interests and set aside personal and political differences for the sake of the country.
The president, in his annual address to the joint session of the parliament marking the beginning of the new parliamentary year, urged the house to focus on promoting good governance, and political and economic stability to meet expectations of the nationals who pinned their hopes on parliament.
He appreciated the government's efforts for putting the country on a positive path to economic growth as foreign exchange reserves witnessed a surge. He said that the plight of people in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir remained a grave concern for the entire nation.
Asif Ali Zardari said, it is his singular privilege as civilian president to address for the 8th time this August House at the beginning of another Parliamentary Year.
He appreciated the government’s efforts for putting the country on a positive path to economic growth. Our foreign exchange reserves witnessed a surge, he added
President Asif Ali Zardari also addressed the government’s unilateral decision to carve out more canals from the Indus River System, despite strong opposition from federating units.
A proposal that I as your President cannot support. I urge this government to abandon this current proposal and work together with all stakeholders to come up with viable, sustainable solutions based on unanimous consensus among the federating units.
He reiterated Pakistan’s principled position on the issues of Kashmir and Palestine, and called for the resolution of the disputes as per the international law and aspirations of the respective peoples.
He said that the people of Kashmir had been suffering for decades under the unjust occupation, oppression, and brutal human rights violations by the successive Indian regimes.
“Pakistan will always stand by them in their struggle for self-determination…The voice of the oppressed will not be silenced, and Pakistan will continue to raise this issue at every international forum,” the president said.
President Zardari reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering moral, political and diplomatic support for the Kashmiri people and called upon the international community to take decisive action against the atrocities being committed by the Indian Occupation Forces.
He said the serial devastations in Palestine demanded the world’s urgent attention as the people continued to endure violence, displacement, ethnic cleansing, and oppression at the hands of Israeli security forces.
