Jamal A Qaiser, a German of Pakistani origin, became the United Nations (UN) Commissioner for Diplomatic Council (DC) on July 4 this year and pledged to work tirelessly for the global peace after resuming his charge. Qaiser gave an exclusive interview to Pakistan Today in his recent visit to Pakistan – the country where he was born in 1972.
“I received a phone call from the UN secretary general the day when I was made the UN commissioner for DC. I am going to attend the summit of United Nations General Assembly in September this year and it will be a great pride for the expatriates of Pakistan living in Europe,” Qaiser said confidently. According to him, the world is on the edge of global war and there is a need to curtail that threat by spreading the peace. He was of the view that repeated attempts of regime change in Libya, Iraq and Syria to install the so-called ‘democratic set-ups’ paved the way for a catastrophic war that has killed more than five million people and left 25 million displaced. Talking about the terrorists’ activities of ISIS, Qaiser said that Islam doesn’t preach such activities and one can find severe condemnation of such activities in Islam. “Whoever kills an innocent person, it is as though he has killed all the mankind,” he quoted a verse from the Holy Quran.
Diplomatic Council (DC) is a global think tank based in Hague (Netherland), the worldwide capital of peace striving to connect different countries of the world.
Talking about the refugee’s crisis in Germany, Qaiser said that she needs a proper legislation on immigration and Canada may be a role model for her in this regard. “Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, welcomed all the refuges wholeheartedly and termed them the future of Canada,” Qaiser said, and urged the Germany to follow the suit. There are 11 million children in Germany out of the population of 80 million and she desperately needs the active labour force to fill that gap, he added. Qaiser thinks that Angela Merkel – the German chancellor – must allow the refugees to come after their thorough examination to avoid future terrorists’ activities in Germany. It is pertinent to add that Qaiser has written a book on refuge crisis named “The strange success factor: Why do we desperately need immigrants in Germany” and it received a huge acclaim throughout the Europe.
Every Pakistani expatriate takes great interest in the political and economic affairs of their homeland. In the words of Qaiser, “My roots are here in Pakistan as my grandfather used to live in a village of Sialkot. I have an intuition where I’ll be working for Pakistan at some important position in future.” Talking about the domestic situation of Pakistan, Qaiser said, “Pakistan has been engulfed by different religious factions and we have forgotten to work as a nation. Unfortunately, religion is misused in Pakistan and it earns a bad name in foreign countries, he added. “The respect of green passport is lost when a Pakistani takes asylum just because of persecution of his community,” Qaiser said dejectedly.
According to him, the situation of Pakistan has started to improve after the cleansing operation of army under COAS Raheel Sharif. “There will be lot of business opportunities in Pakistan in near future as the incidents of terrorism have decreased drastically,” Qaiser, a graduate of Harvard Business School, commented.
Talking about the hostility between India and Pakistan, he said only peace is the way forward for both the countries. “Both the countries did not accept the referendum conducted by the UN over Kashmir and the time has come to solve this issue through referendum,” he said. I advise both the countries to invest on their economies instead of spending hefty budgets on purchasing arms and ammunition, he added.
