ISLAMABAD
\nCaretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has said that Pakistan was focusing on its own interests without choosing sides in great power competition, and that the West was \u201cover-obsessed\u201d with efforts to contain China.
\nThe prime minister, in an interview with Washington Post during his visit to New York to attend the 78th United Nations General Assembly session published on Wednesday, said Pakistan intended to stay \u201cneutral\u201d on Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine and saw China as its \u201call-weather friend\u201d and \u201cstrategic partner.\u201d
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not a Cold War. There is no Iron Curtain here. It\u2019s not that opaque. Everybody sees what is happening,\u201d the prime minister said. He said that the West was \u201cover-obsessed\u201d with efforts to contain China.
\nHe told the interviewer that Pakistan was charting a path designed to avoid getting caught up in the competition between the West and Russia and China. He said Pakistan had no intention of committing to either camp in the growing US-China rivalry.
\nBy siding with the West against the Soviets and again after 9\/11, Pakistan paid a high price, Kakar said. \u201cPakistan in the last 30 years has been treated unfairly by the West,\u201d he told the interviewer.
\n\u201cEvery nation for itself\u2026 Why should we be worried about this competition? It\u2019s between two great powers, two great civilizations, and the implications [affect] 150-plus countries. And Pakistan is just one of them,\u201d PM Kakar remarked.
\nMentioning Pakistan\u2019s \u201cneutral\u201d stance on Ukraine, the prime minister said, \u201cThis crisis is creating challenges and at the same time it is creating opportunities also within the region, and we are looking at it both ways,\u201d he said.
\nPrime Minister Kakar flatly denied the allegations in a media report of Pakistan moving any munitions to Ukraine saying, \u201cWe have not gone for any sale which was directly intended for the Ukraine, not any sort of transactions,\u201d even through a third party.
\nRegarding the arrest of workers of Pakistan Tehree-k-e-Insaf, the prime minister denied the alleged abuses and compared Pakistan\u2019s actions to the arrests in the United States of those who attacked the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
\n\u201cArrests are being made for unlawful actions, somebody who\u2019s involved in arson or vandalism,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not the kind of behavior which is promoted or vindicated by any liberal democracy. So why is it being even expected of Pakistan that we should condone such behaviors?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has said that Pakistan was focusing on its own interests without choosing sides in great power competition, and that the West was \u201cover-obsessed\u201d with efforts to contain China. The prime minister, in an interview with Washington Post during his visit to New York to attend the 78th United Nations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351113,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-358693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n