Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Asif Ghafoor has said that terrorism has been reduced due to the efforts of Pakistan Army and a lot has been sacrificed to restore peace.
The ISPR DG was delivering a comprehensive talk about Pakistan and its contributions to regional peace at the Warwick University in the UK on Tuesday.
He said that Pakistani intelligence apparatus provided key information to the international forces against Al-Qaeda, which helped defeat the terror group. He said that the defeat of Al-Qaeda could never have been possible without intelligence help provided by Pakistan.
Talking about the future of Afghanistan, Major General Asif Ghafoor said that Pakistan has achieved relative stability, however, there cannot be enduring peace in Pakistan and the region if there is no peace in Afghanistan.
The ISPR DG said that Pakistan is positively relevant to the geopolitical and geo-economic pursuits of the world powers in the region. “The future of the region and the globe is not without Pakistan, we have a potentially rich economy, we are bestowed with great resources, a majority of our population is youth,” he said.
Major General Ghafoor explained that there was a time not long ago when terrorists were only 60 miles away from the capital threatening to take over the city and it was at that time when the conflict in the neighbourhood had spilt into Pakistan. He said the Army decided to take the threat of a new kind of terrorism head on and went on to sacrifice nearly 70,000 people.
“It has not been without human and financial cost. The sacrifice we have paid to restore Pakistan is huge,” he said.
The DG ISPR explained the peculiarities of the Western zone and said Pakistan is often misunderstood and blamed for things that the country can never think of doing. He explained how the issue of refugees and terrorism has bogged down the country, yet Pakistan has gone out of its way to help its Afghan brothers throughout by hosting them in millions and now helping them in their rehabilitation.
He told the audience that Kashmir is the mother of all disputes and Pakistan will never compromise on the rights of the Kashmiri people and will continue to offer them moral support.
He said that Noble Peace Prize winner Malala Yousufzai was attacked in Swat by terrorists who were against the education of girls and youth and the same elements threatened to take over the Pakistani society.
“No other country has withstood against the onslaught of terrorism in the manner Pakistan has,” Major General Asif Ghafoor said.
