WEBDESK: Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has claimed that the country has recently achieved a series of significant victories against India on various diplomatic fronts, while warning that the Indian leadership might attempt provocative actions to recover its lost standing.
Speaking during a private television talk show, Asif stated, “We have secured victories against India. They withdrew from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting, and we also achieved success on the issue of the Indus Waters Treaty. In just a month and a half, we’ve had three major diplomatic wins.”
The Defence Minister criticized the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), alleging that law and order incidents like the recent Swat tragedy are not isolated, and that the province continues to suffer from administrative failures. “They bring machinery to attack Islamabad while the entire province drowns in a flood of corruption,” he added.
Taking a jibe at PTI, Asif remarked that the party has failed to hold internal elections for an extended period and frequently changes its identity. “Sometimes they call themselves Sunni Ittehad, sometimes PTI — nobody knows what brand or identity they represent.”
Commenting on the political fallout after the Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding PTI, the minister claimed many of its members have now gone independent and might either join the ruling coalition or form a new political party.
He also revealed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made a rare move by visiting the opposition benches in the National Assembly to meet with former Speaker Asad Qaiser and Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, but expressed disappointment that no one in PTI seemed serious about securing the release of their party founder.
Asif further noted that Pakistan’s governance under the current “hybrid system” has led to improvements in the country’s international passport ranking and credit ratings.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also hailed what he termed a “historic victory” for Pakistan against Indian aggression on multiple fronts.
