Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that throughout his political career, he has never seen as much as anticipation as there is for his address to the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) today.

Addressing the Asia Society in New York City, the premier said that he was treating the event as "net practice for tomorrow".

"In my 22, 23 years of politics, I have never seen anticipation for anything like [there is for] my speech tomorrow in the United Nations General Assembly," he said, adding: "The closest feeling I've had in the past was before the World Cup cricket final I played a long time ago."

The premier has already announced that he will highlight the Kashmir issue in his UNGA address, exposing the ethical and legal bankruptcy of India’s annexation of the occupied territory.

Speaking at the Asia Society, Prime Minister Imran said that his vision for Pakistan is the same as that of the founding fathers of the country, which was a vision of the state of Madina set up by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

"Not many Muslims understand that the state of Madina was a modern state," he said, adding that hardly any politicians understand the characteristics of the state, which he said included being a welfare and humane state that took responsibility for the weak and gave rights to all religions as equal citizens.

The premier said that Pakistan had moved so far away from this ideal.

"We became exactly the opposite, a society where the powerful had one law and the weak were out of the law, most of the people don't have access to justice."

"The cornerstone of a society is rule of law, so therefore I call my movement, the movement for justice," he said, adding: "And I believe that rule of law is the fundamental thing which differentiates a civilised society from one which is not civilised."

The premier said that when the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) came to power 13 months ago, the biggest problem they faced was the country's current account deficit.

"We inherited two of the biggest deficits — the current account and the fiscal deficit and in order to fix that we had to make reforms," he explained.

Prime Minister Imran said that after making changes they had managed to bring down the current account deficit by almost 70 per cent in one year.

Read: Current account deficit contracts 73pc in July

"Even if your economy is growing, if your current account is in a deficit, if that is not balanced, you are always going to be in trouble," he said.

The premier said that other challenges that are faced include fixing institutions.

"One institution we are trying to fix is our [Federal Board of Revenue] FBR," he said, adding that fixing the tax system had been the biggest challenge.

"I am proud to say in the past two months, we have collected the highest tax ever," he said.

External challenges

Referring to external challenges, Prime Minister Imran said that as soon as he came to power he immediately tried to "mend fences".

"[With] Afghanistan we have mend fences, we have very good interaction with the Afghan government.

"With Iran, we hope to play a big part," he said, adding that he had met the Iranian president and President Trump had also asked Pakistan to play its part.

Read: PM Imran says he is mediating with Iran after Trump asked him to help

"We're trying our best, it's quite a complex issue," the prime minister said.

The premier said that when PTI came to power, as other parties had decided in 2014, they had decided that "the state will no longer allow any armed militia in Pakistan".

He said that he told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that they had taken steps regarding the matter and asked him to have a relationship based on trust.

"We didn't get very far," he admitted, adding that they assumed that this was because of the Indian elections.

However, after the elections, when Pakistan attempted to resume talks they faced a "brick wall".

Kashmir

"My main reason for coming here [to] this United Nations General Assembly is because I feel that the world should realise that this is a serious situation developing," he said referring to the situation in occupied Kashmir.

The India-occupied region has been facing a clampdown since August 5, when the Indian government revoked Article 370 of the Indian constitution, stripping it of its special status.

Thousands of people, mostly political leaders, have also been reportedly detained or arrested since the move.

Prime Minister Imran reiterated his fear of "bloodshed" once the siege in the occupied territory is lifted.

"When there is bloodshed, there will be consequences will which go much further outside Kashmir. It will also raise tensions between Pakistan and India."

"It is very important for the world community, for the United Nations, to take action now," he emphasised.