Int'l community, rights groups following IOK situation: former US envoy

Cameron Munter sees no breakthrough in Pak-India ties, calls Pak-US cultural ties strong

Former US envoy to Pakistan Cameron Munter has said that the incidents occurring in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) have been condemned on a large scale, adding that news of atrocities was being received and human rights organisations were following the development.

Addressing a ceremony of the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations at a local hotel in Karachi, he also pointed out that no immediate solution to the issues between Pakistan and India was forthcoming. He also said that he could not say if Pakistan and India had found a way out of their issues.

The former US envoy to Pakistan said that no immediate solution to the issues between Pakistan and India was evident but that both countries would have to avoid a collision. He also said that changes in India were coming at a fast pace.

Munter said that non-traditional leadership was coming to power all over the world as both Donald Trump and Imran Khan were non-traditional and similar leaders, such as Erdogan and Boris Johnson, had come forward in Turkey and the United Kingdom (UK) respectively.

In reply to a question, he said that matters concerning Afghanistan seemed to be in the process of being resolved in the past few days. He also said the Trump administration was weary of the 18-year-long war in Afghanistan and that the US wanted to pull out of it at all costs. He also opined that US policy regarding Pakistan over the past 20 years had been in the context of Afghanistan.

He also stressed the need for the US and Pakistan to work with educated youth and acknowledged that cultural ties between the two countries were strong as a large number of Pakistani expatriates were residing in the US.

Munter said that, in the past, meetings had been arranged between former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf and former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh but admitted that the talks had not been successful. He also said that Trump’s slogan of ‘America first’ was not for Pakistan but the American public.

On the US-China relations, he said China needed to resolve a few issues as the US wanted better relations with it.

Addressing the ceremony, Karachi Council on Foreign Relations Chairman Ikram Sehgal said that Munter was a friend of Pakistan’s and that Imran Khan, through his passionate speech based on facts at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session, had made Pakistanis proud. He also termed Cameron Munter’s praise for the Pakistani prime minister’s speech good news for Pakistan.