ISLAMABAD: Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Zubair Mahmood Hayat Monday said that enemies of Pakistan were systematically spreading fake news about the country, a private TV channel reported.
“However, despite the evil designs of enemy states, a strong and stable future awaits Pakistan,” he told a summit here in the federal capital. The top general maintained that the summit was a step in the right direction at an appropriate time, as information, diplomacy, the army and economy were the four basic pillars of a state in the current era. “Information is the strength of today, but it also being misused. False impressions are created about Pakistan deliberately and fake news reports against the country are spread in an organised manner,” he told the gathering.
“If any criminal in the world commits a crime, international headlines are not made, but if a Pakistani criminal does something then why all those headlines?” he asked.
The general also stressed that CPEC was going to be a game changer for the region, and that Pakistan was about to become world’s 18th biggest economy in 2020. “People such as Abdul Sattar Eidhi, Malala Yousafzai and Arfa Karim are the face of Pakistan. All of you should also come forward and tell the world that Pakistan’s positive list is much longer than the negative,” he remarked.
The top military official said Pakistan was not created just for the rich. “Enemies were never pleased with the creation of Pakistan, and our neighbour is now busy in defaming Pakistan,” he said, and added that the country had faced political and cultural globalisation after the cold war and sacrificed a lot in the war against terror. “No country in the world ever came close to our accomplishments. Pakistan is experiencing some issues of extremism, governance and security, but is not India facing all these issues?” he noted.
Published in Daily Times, May 8th 2018.
