MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government has laid the foundation stone of South Punjab province by establishing a secretariat and in future no one would be able to stepback from it.

Addressing a ceremony after laying down the foundation stone of the construction of a bridge over the metro route at Madni Chowk, the foreign minister said appointments for the [south Punjab] secretariat had been made and rules of business amended.

“This [all] has happened because of the leadership of Imran Khan and Multan would have its own secretariat. One day the dream of a separate province will come true,” he said.

Qureshi said Islamabad had exposed New Delhi across the globe through a dossier on how India wanted to destabilise Pakistan.

“India wants to destabilise Pakistan and create unrest. EU DisinfoLab exposed [New Delhi] by disclosing that India was propagating against Pakistan through 750 fake websites and hundreds of NGOs.

The government wants to stabilise the country economically. Two years back, the powerlooms machinery was being sold as scrap but today not only all powerlooms are functional but there are such a large number of orders that new orders for purchase of machinery have been placed and Faisalabad is short of labour,” he said.

Terming the attack on coal miners in Balochistan an act to destabilise the country, the foreign minister said the elements who want stability in Pakistan are the friends of Pakistan while the forces that want to destabilise the country are its enemies.

“We not only have to identify and expose them but also defeat them,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2021