Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday that Pakistan would not recognise Israel in any case. 

In a statement, the prime minister said Pakistan would not make a compromise on the rights of hapless Kashmiris and Palestinians. He said that Pakistan’s stance on Israel was quite clear. He said that Pakistan was answerable to Allah on issues of Palestine and Kashmir. 

Commenting on reports about the alleged breakdown of Pakistan-Saudi Arabia relations, Khan said there was no truth in such reports. He said that Pakistan had good relations with Saudi Arabia and the latter always helped Pakistan in time of need. He said that Saudi Arabia had its own foreign policy. 

Khan said institutions would decide the case involving Jahangir Khan Tareen, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

An inquiry commission looking into the sugar crisis a couple of months ago had held Tareen and some other influential political figures responsible for the sugar scam. Prices of sugar had skyrocketed in Pakistan this year after sugar mills allegedly created an artificial shortage of the commodity in the country. 

The prime minister said that double quantity of sugar was sold in Punjab in July. He said he would fight the mafia responsible for artificial shortage of sugar in the country. He said that Tareen had not committed any crime so far. He said he was sad to hear that Tareen had been linked to the sugar crisis. 

Khan said that Karachi was a financial hub of Pakistan and its problems would depress him. Had ethnic politics not started in Karachi in 1980s, he said, it would have become a modern city today. He said that absence of a local government system was one of the reasons for Karachi’s woes. He said that Altaf Hussain, founding chief of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), destroyed Karachi. He said that Iranian city of Tehran was a modern city despite the fact that Iran had been facing international sanctions for decades. He said that Tehran had its own mayor. He said that a case relating to the local government system in Karachi had been pending in the Supreme Court of Pakistan for some time now. He said the federal government was going to take important decisions vis-à-vis Karachi. 

Referring to the energy woes of the country, Khan said the energy crisis was one of the three major problems Pakistan was facing. He said that problems could not be solved without bringing down the cost of power generation. He said that 32 percent of the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Programme funding was distributed to people in Sindh. 

Referring to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s divisive policies, Imran Khan said that Modi’s Hindutva ideology had divided India. He said that Modi enforced a complete curfew in the country to stop the spread of coronavirus, but it backfired.