Pakistan PM warns new virus may devastate developing nations

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s prime minister mentioned Monday he fears the brand new coronavirus will devastate the economies of growing nations, and warned richer economies to organize to put in writing off the money owed of the world’s poorer nations.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Imran Khan criticized latest feedback by the president of neighboring Afghanistan, which appeared to reference accusations that Pakistan used militants to additional its personal targets in years previous.

Khan additionally raised concern over India’s worst Hindu-Muslim violence in a long time, saying the Indian prime minister’s Hindu nationalist-led authorities threatens to disenfranchise a whole lot of tens of millions of individuals by means of a controversial new citizenship legislation.

He additional known as for lifting sanctions towards Iran, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak within the Middle East.

Khan sat down with the AP at his workplace within the resplendent white-domed authorities headquarters within the capital of Islamabad. He’d spent a lot of his day assembly consultants concerning the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in Pakistan, which has confirmed 183 circumstances to this point.

“My fear is poverty and starvation,” Khan mentioned. “The world group has to consider some form of a debt write-off for nations like us, that are very susceptible, at the least that can assist us in dealing with (the coronavirus).”

He mentioned that if a critical outbreak occurs in Pakistan, he’s fearful that his authorities’s efforts to raise the ailing financial system out of near-collapse would start an unstoppable slide backward. Exports would fall off, unemployment would soar and an onerous nationwide debt would grow to be an unimaginable burden. Pakistan secured a $6 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund final 12 months.

The international virus pandemic presents the most important check but for Khan’s populist management since he took workplace in 2018. He’s mobilized Pakistan’s younger folks, who’re amongst his largest followers. His critics say he got here to energy with the assistance of the nation’s highly effective army, and human rights teams say he’s cracked down on crucial media retailers.

“It’s not simply Pakistan. I’d think about the identical in India, within the subcontinent, in African nations,” he mentioned, referring to the virus. “If it spreads, we’ll all have issues with our well being services. We simply don’t have that functionality. We simply don’t have the assets.”

Most individuals who get the brand new coronavirus and the COVID-19 sickness it causes expertise solely gentle or reasonable signs, resembling fever and cough, and get well inside weeks. But the virus is extremely contagious and may be unfold by folks with no seen signs. For some, particularly older adults and other people with current well being issues, it might trigger extra extreme sickness, together with pneumonia.

The pandemic comes simply as a peace deal between the United States and the Taliban has given Afghanistan its finest probability at ending its limitless wars, and bringing US troops house after almost 19 years.

But the Taliban have a protracted and complex relationship with Pakistan’s army and intelligence companies. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani not too long ago mentioned the insurgents have to display their dedication to peace by extricating themselves from Pakistan’s affect. Some Afghan officers check with Pakistan — notably its army — because the Taliban’s “masters.”

Khan known as Ghani’s feedback “disappointing,” and mentioned that since taking workplace, he’s labored onerous with the US to assist cobble collectively a tempo deal in Afghanistan.

“If something, it ought to have been appreciation of the best way Pakistan has gone about furthering the peace course of,” Khan mentioned.

“Pakistan is now a accomplice in peace for the US, which I at all times thought Pakistan ought to have been. Pakistan ought to by no means have been used as a form of employed gun, which is the function which Pakistan was taking part in,” he defined. He mentioned he has at all times opposed his nation’s participation within the “warfare on terror,” calling it a waste of Pakistani lives and cash.

Khan mentioned he’s additionally warned about violent strife on the opposite aspect of his jap border, amid the rise Hindu nationalism in India.

“The worst nightmare of the world has occurred — an extremist, racial get together that believes in racial superiority has taken over a rustic of multiple billion folks and has nuclear weapons,” he mentioned.

“That’s once I went to the United Nations” to warn of the hazard posed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led authorities, he mentioned.

A brand new citizenship legislation in India fast-tracks naturalization for foreign-born non secular minorities of all main faiths in South Asia, besides Islam. There are about 280 million Muslims there.

Since the legislation’s passing, India has been wracked by among the worst sectarian violence in a long time, as Hindus clashed with Muslims. There’s some proof of police aiding Hindu extremist assaults towards Muslim neighborhoods, setting hearth to a mosque.

Islamabad and New Delhi have a protracted historical past of bitter relations since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

Both sides declare the Himalayan area of Kashmir in its entirety, and the Indian-controlled portion is the one Muslim majority state in India. Tensions have been excessive there since final 12 months after Modi’s authorities stripped the portion of Kashmir it controls of semi-autonomy and statehood.

In an extra name for motion from the worldwide group, Khan mentioned it was time to finish U.S. sanctions on Iran, the place one of many worst coronavirus outbreaks on this planet has unfolded. Iran has struggled to reply partly due to crippling sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.

The outbreak in Iran has additionally hit near house. Most of Pakistan’s circumstances of the coronavirus and the COVID-19 sickness it causes have been traced again to Iran, and the entire 21 Afghans who examined constructive had traveled to Iran.

Khan mentioned Iran is a “traditional instance” of a spot the place the humanitarian crucial to include the outbreak outweighs political rivalries or financial dogmas.

The publish Pakistan PM warns new virus might devastate growing nations appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

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