Qureshi thanks Shehbaz, Bilawal for cooperation in joint session

Foreign minister says govt willing to take opposition on board on all important national issues

ISLAMABAD:

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has sent separate letters to the leaders of two major opposition parties, Shehbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and thanked them for their cooperation and support on important legislation in the joint session of parliament on August 6.

According to a press release on Tuesday, the foreign minister stressed that the opposition parties deserved appreciation along with the treasury benches for showing maturity during the joint session, which was convened over the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Kashmir issues.

“I have already appreciated the positive attitude of the Opposition on the floor of the House,” he said in the letters sent to National Assembly Opposition Leader and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal.

For the sake of the national interests, the ruling and the opposition parties once again proved that they had unanimous stance.

He added that the parliament had unanimously rejected India’s unilateral and illegal steps of August 5, 2019 over Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Qureshi said the government had been raising the gross human rights violations in IIOJK at all global fora for the last one year. The United Nations Security Council had debated the Kashmir issue thrice during last one year, he added.

“After a lapse of 55 years, the Kashmir issue has been discussed by the UNSC.”
Qureshi said that he would be waiting for positive proposals from the opposition for formulating the future strategy over the Kashmir policy.

“We are willing to take the opposition on board on all the important national issues, including Kashmir and will always be according high importance to their actionable suggestions.”