HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party central information secretary Maula Bux Chandio has said that Narendra Modi is swallowing up Kashmir thanks to “failed foreign policy of a failed government”.

Chandio said in a statement issued here on Friday that people of Pakistan would observe Aug 5 as the anniversary of present government’s utter failure on Kashmir front.

India had revoked special status granted to occupied Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of its constitution on Aug 5, 2019 despite bitter opposition from Kashmiris and imposed curfew on the valley since then to quell opposition.

Chandio said that after “backtracking” on Kashmir cause the federal government was now busy issuing sermons to pacify the nation. “Shah Mehmood Qureshi is the most [failed] foreign minister of a thoroughly failed government in the history of Pakistan,” he said.

He said sarcastically that the biggest achievement Mr Qureshi could ever claim was his prime minister’s “supine surrender” to his Indian counterpart. Qureshi’s another “big achievement” was to offer an NRO to Indian spy Kulbushan Jadhav, he said.

He said that Imran Khan was following in the footsteps of Pervez Musharraf whether it was Kashmir policy or domestic politics.

He claimed that the foreign minister wanted to stir up a conflict with opposition in order to cover up his failures but he must remember that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was heir of a man who could not even be subdued by Qureshi’s mentors Ziaul Haq and Musharraf.

He said that PPP chairman was rising and the foreign minister’s “selected” leader was sinking. Those who had trampled upon all mores of ethics in politics were now issuing statements on observance of ethics, he said.

He said that national leadership was being attacked by non-entities. When PPP talked about democracy and Constitution, it received expletives in return and when it questioned policy on Kulbushan, the government started parroting about NRO, he said.

SUKKUR: Sukkur administration is preparing to observe Aug 5 as black day to express solidarity with people of occupied Kashmir on completion of one year under siege of Indian armed forces.

Deputy Commissioner Rana Adeel Tasawwur issued a notification on Friday, directing all government and private entities to hang banners on buildings and advised everyone to wear black armbands on the day to show people of occupied Kashmir who were observing a black day on Aug 5 that “we stand by them”.

He, however, asked citizens not to forget observance of SOPs for Covid-19 during any activity they might be organising on the day.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2020