Alvi backs Mahathir’s call for Ummah unity

President says Pakistan, Malaysia and Turkey can help Muslim world

ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi has endorsed Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s proposal for joint collaboration between Pakistan, Malaysia and Turkey to unite the Muslim world, saying that the three big Muslim countries would help the Ummah.

In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency in Islamabad, Alvi described the Malaysian premier’s proposal as “very important”. He also thanked the Turkish government and the people of Turkey for their support on Kashmir issue.

“President [Recep] Erdogan is a very visionary leader, at the same time Prime Minister Mahathir and Prime Minister Imran Khan are also very visionary leaders, these three are big democracies, these three are democracies which are strong with huge populations,” the president said.

“I think it’s very important that these countries get together on economic issues,” he added. “So I think Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia can play a huge role not only for peace but at the same time for joint venture for development throughout the Middle East and in the Muslim world.”

Finding commonalities among the three nations, Alvi said they were peoples who did not like foreign hegemonies.

“Pakistan is still under pressure from India and I think cooperation among them is very important for the Muslim world.”

The president said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government subscribed to the philosophy of the extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which was very similar to Adolph Hitler’s philosophy of ethnic cleansing of suppressing minorities.

“After the Gujarat riots [in 2002], after which no democratic government in the world was ready to give Modi a visa. That pattern continues [in India now]. That pattern continues in Kashmir, even in Assam, making the people of Assam and Bengal—about 4 million Muslims—stateless,” he said.

Responding to a question as to why the world powers were not interested in helping resolve the Kashmir dispute despite passing of 71 years, he said that the Modi government had brought the situation to a level where the governments throughout the world would have to react.

“Today is the 45th day when the voice of Kashmiri people is totally suppressed and nobody knows about the exact situation inside Kashmir as the valley was entirely locked down. On information, on television, on cell phones, on landlines, there is a total lockdown. There is curfew,” he said.

“Can you imagine that people who would be requiring medicines and people who need to earn livelihood. They all [are] behind curfew. So, you can’t stop eight million people in Kashmir Valley, cannot be put under curfew. I think the situation is humanitarian-wise, it is a major crisis.”

The president emphasised that that the Indian government was living under a false belief about the future that they would be able to suppress the Kashmiri people.

“You look at the Palestinians, no people can be suppressed in the world. Nazis could not suppress them [Jews],” he added.

On Pakistan’s cooperation with Turkey in the fight against Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), Alvi said Islamabad had played its role in this regard and added that the Turkey was capable of dealing with the issue.