Spoilers poised to disrupt Pakistan’s economic stability: Qureshi

Islamabad: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Friday condemned Thursday’s blast in Lahore, saying that some anti-peace forces were playing the spoiler role to disrupt Pakistan’s economic stability.

“We don’t have to worry about it. We have to eliminate them. In the past too, our nation and forces fought against and defeated them. In the future too, they will meet the same fate,” he said in a statement.

He said Pakistan always desired peace and economic development of the whole region.

The foreign minister said Pakistan would prudently fight out terrorism for which there was a consensus among the nation.

Coming to the situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the foreign minister said the Indian war crimes and genocide attempts were also being highlighted in the UK.

He said many terrorist attacks had been thwarted preemptively and the criminals were taken to the task.

Foreign Minister Qureshi said it would be probed as to which forces were backing the group that had claimed the responsibility of the Lahore blast and who trained and supplied ammunition.

Referring to the Kulbhushan case, he said Pakistan had been and would continue to diplomatically expose such elements before the world.

He also hoped that the opposition political parties would also support the government in this endeavor.

Qureshi said, through a letter, he had invited opposition leaders Shahbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to support the constitutional amendments required for the creation of the South Punjab province.

He hoped that the opposition leaders would seriously consider the invitation keeping in view the interest of 35 million people of South Punjab.