Punjab governor calls for Nobel Peace Prize for prime minister

Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar says Imran Khan only political leader opposing war and promoting peace in region

LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan has always publicly advocated a peaceful resolution to the war in Afghanistan, Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar has said. “The prime minister is the only political leader who had been opposing war in the region.”

The governor expressed these views while calling for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Prime Minister Imran Khan, in recognition of his role in the Afghan peace process, in a media statement issued on Sunday.

By all standards, he deserves the Nobel Prize, he added. “PM Imran Khan sent a message of peace to the international community last year by setting a captured Indian pilot free, although India had been promoting war hysteria.”

The governor further said that after a period of around 19 years, war was now going to end in Afghanistan because of sincere efforts of Pakistan. “The PM had been calling for resolving the Afghan dispute since the US and its allies launched the war. And today, America and the Taliban have admitted the utility of Imran Khan’s standpoint.”

The governor remarked, “Today, war is dying down and peace is taking roots in Afghanistan.”

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan played a historic and decisive role in the Afghan peace process, he highlighted. “The Taliban-US peace accord is the victory of the principled stand of the prime minister.”

He elaborated that Pakistan was supportive of peace in the region as it would ensure progress and prosperity of the people living here. Pakistan was advocating peace in the neighbouring countries. “India must resolve the Kashmir issue in accordance with the UN resolutions, instead of using guns and bullets against helpless Kashmiris and even its own people in different regions.”

Atrocities against Indian Muslims must come to an end, otherwise threats to regional peace would continue looming large due to India’s negative approach, he concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2020.