OIC, int'l community acknowledge Pakistan's stance on Afghanistan: PM

• PM Imran Khan calls on int'l community to provide relief to Afghans.
• Pakistan's image has "significantly improved in last 3 years", he says.
• Prime minister stresses "self-belief" for Pakistani nation's success.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said Tuesday the international community and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have now acknowledged Pakistan's narrative on Afghanistan.

The prime minister, addressing officers of the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad during his visit to the Foreign Office, said the international community should focus on the difficulties being faced by the 40 million Afghans, Radio Pakistan reported.

Pakistan's image has "significantly improved at the international level in the last three years", the prime minister said, two days after Islamabad hosted the 17th extraordinary session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the OIC.

Muslim nations, during the session, resolved to work with the United Nations to try to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Afghan assets in a bid to tackle a growing humanitarian crisis.

The prime minister congratulated the Foreign Office for successfully conducting the 17th extraordinary session. He also praised the law enforcement agencies that made the event a success, making the nation proud, with a strong sense of self-belief.

'Self-belief key to nation’s success'

The prime minister, while lauding the nation’s mettle to face different testing times in the country’s history, stressed upon the inculcation of "self-belief", a quality that could serve as a beacon of light in hard times.

The prime minister said it was the self-belief that always entailed changes.

“When you instil self-belief in yourself as a nation, you can achieve marvels. When the earthquake hit the country (during 2005), the whole nation mobilised and during floods (of 2010), the nation contributed, which reflected that the nation could always stand the tests of time,” he added.

The prime minister also referred to his cricket career and the performance of the national cricket team which achieved success when motivated with self-belief.

“The country has a huge talented population of 220 million people along with 9 million overseas Pakistanis who are capable of achieving anything as they have excelled in every field,” he expressed.

“No country aspires progress sans rule of law,” he said, adding certain Western countries had achieved progress and prosperity despite scant resources, as they had introduced a culture of rule of law.

Elite capture

The prime minister also regretted that in the past, the elite had captured spaces as they were "pampered with all facilities".

He underscored that the government would have to focus to lift the poor segments of society and for this purpose, the whole nation would have to continue this struggle.

Citing the current account deficit, the prime minister said it had increased pressure on the rupee. The government had almost overcome the challenge, but the increasing commodity prices at the global level proved as a choking point.

Expressing his resolve, he said, however, it was a temporary phase and the country would overcome it.

“I strongly believe that Pakistan has a great future and the nation will become strong,” he said, recollecting that during the 60s, the nation was following that path.

— Additional input from APP