Islamabad: While addressing the Petroleum Conference 2024, the Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said that Pakistan was blessed with abundant natural resources. He emphasized the need for concerted efforts to explore onshore and offshore oil and gas reserves.
Caretaker Prime Minister attended the Petroleum Conference 2024 as a Chief Guest. Chief of Army Staff, General Syed Asim Munir, NI (M) was the guest of honour at the Conference.
Provincial Chief Ministers, Minister for Energy, Secretary Petroleum, Government representatives, policy makers, foreign and domestic investors from the Energy and Petroleum (E&P) sector and international delegates also attended the conference.
The Prime Minister affirmed Government’s readiness to contribute in infrastructure development, logistics, and security to bolster exploration and production efforts.
The Prime Minister further stated that the conference reflected a collective commitment to fully utilise the immense mineral potential of Pakistan, so as to ensure energy self-sufficiency and transform the Country into a regional exporter of energy.
He appreciated the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and the Federal Ministry of Energy for fostering an investor-friendly environment by streamlining regulations and procedures.
Mr. Ali Taha Al-Temimi, Country Manager, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company appreciated unrelenting efforts of the Government of Pakistan in bringing the stakeholders together for formulating policy recommendations and boosting investment in the petroleum sector.
Meanwhile, Expressing his views on a private TV (Aik) news morning show, he opined that the conviction rate under the contemporary criminal justice system was very low, reflecting deficiencies and efforts to be made to plug the loopholes through effective legislation.
To a question about terrorist groups in Balochistan province, the prime minister said that non-state actors had no right to unleash violence and the State had the responsibility to counter such terrorist acts.
About 90,000 people in the country had lost their lives in waves of terrorism, he said, adding whether it was not the onus of political parties and the parliamentarians to improve upon the criminal justice system to expedite the conviction rate!
The prime minister maintained that he was speaking about the whole justice system, especially its lower tiers.
“Whose responsibility was to improve it? Carrying out legislative business under the constitution is the onus of parliament,” he reiterated.
Elaborating his viewpoint, he said that Baloch, Pashtuns and different settlers had been living in Balochistan for decades.
There was no political uniform group while one minority armed group was carrying out violent activities, he said, adding that the US State Department, the UK, EU, and all other democratic countries had declared these groups as terrorists, he added.
The prime minister said that he did not differentiate between banned TTP and Ahrar and BLA and BLF, as these terrorist outfits had been using violence as a tool to create terror and kill innocent people.
In their terrorist attacks, about 1038 people had been martyred since 2018 in the province, he said, and cited incidents of Coastal Highway and an attack on Turbat police station in which innocent people had been killed and burnt alive.
On the other hand, he said the political protests and approach were acknowledged by the world, intelligentsia, and media. The world has declared ISIS a terrorist organization.
To a query, Prime Minister Kakar said that the Middle East was a complex challenge. Pakistan had conveyed to different world fora and the international community that the continuation of the situation in Gaza was unacceptable, he added.
They had stressed upon opening of humanitarian assistance corridors with immediate ceasefire. Along with the Muslim countries, Pakistan had reaffirmed a joint stance, he said.
The prime minister said that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Arab League and the entire world was speaking about the two-state solution with an independent Palestine based upon pre-June 1967 borders, with Al Quds al Shareef as its capital, adding that it was the unanimous stance of the Muslim world.
He regretted that certain elements were criticizing him unjustly for referring to that solution and reiterated that Pakistan had not budged from its principled stance on Palestine.
He maintained that his remarks about Quaid e Azam’s views over Palestine were distorted in the past.
Responding to questions about his childhood and youth, the prime minister said that from a young age, he had been fascinated with politics and the political leaders.
He informed that he was greatly influenced by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s oratory and eloquence who was the most inspiring figure for him. Similarly, former British premier Winston Churchill’s wits and linguistic skills also influenced him.
