ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi has called upon all the governments and political parties to pause politics and urged all stakeholders to launch a nationwide drive to mobilise the people and humanitarian organizations to assist administrations in their relief efforts to rehabilitate the flood victims and for the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure.

“I will volunteer in my personal capacity to mediate among the stakeholders on major questions faced by the country, including the date of next elections, consensus-based economic charter, and the way forward on making key appointments,” he said during a meeting with journalists, who called on him here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.

Alvi, in a statement, stressed the need for understanding that any comment, narrative or analysis, having the potential to create division within the institutions or between the institutions and people of Pakistan, could never be in the national interest.

The president reiterated his call to all the political parties, opinion leaders, eminent members of the civil society and the media persons to “remain within the confines” of Article 19 (freedom of speech) of the Constitution and relevant laws while “discussing or commenting on institutions”.

He claimed that almost 90% of social media was providing knowledge, information, education and entertainment to the masses at no or nominal cost which was a healthy trend.

“Certain individuals or groups who are followers of certain political parties or a leader use social media for trolling and starting insulting and derogatory trends against certain individuals and institutions without the knowledge or consent of the political party or the leader but such trends are attributed to them without any evidence,” Alvi added.

He was of the view that such unverified attributions add to the existing political polarisation, which should be avoided.

Pakistan paying the price

“This unprecedented catastrophe has been induced due to global warming and climate change whereas Pakistan contributes less than 1% to the global carbon emissions,” Alvi said as he spoke about his visit to the flood-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Southern Punjab, and the low-lying areas of Sindh and Balochistan.

Alvi said the developed world, being the major contributor to global warming and climate change, should proportionally bear the burden of rescue and relief operations, reconstruction of damaged communication infrastructure, rebuilding the destroyed houses and compensating the people for lost property, livestock and standing crops.

The climate catastrophe had affected more than 33 million people, killed 1,100 people, damaged over one million houses, perished over 735,000 livestock, destroyed two million acres of crops and the communications infrastructure.

He stressed the need for launching a nationwide drive for increasing the forest cover in the country, shifting from fossil fuels to alternative means of energy and building delay-action and large dams to minimize the effects of climate change.

Friendly ties with everyone

The president while speaking about the foreign policy said that Pakistan had always pursued friendly relations with all countries of the world and had been playing its “due role” in promoting the internationally recognised norms of interstate relations.

“Pakistan strongly believes in mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, non-aggression and peaceful settlement of disputes, and in return demanded the same treatment from other countries.”

He added that Pakistan due to its “unique strategic and geo-economic location” had always been considered “important” by regional and international powers. “Keeping the national interest supreme, the country should maintain cordial relations with all the countries while ensuring dignity and sovereignty of the country and the people of Pakistan.”

Alvi endorsed the foreign office statement and expressed his concern about the allegations by Afghanistan’s acting defence minister regarding the use of Pakistan’s air space in the US counter-terrorism drone operation in Afghanistan.

“In the absence of any evidence, as acknowledged by the Afghan minister himself, such conjectural allegations are highly regrettable and reaffirmed Pakistan’s belief in the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states.”