PAKISTAN PREMIER ON INDIAN RELATIONS

Grey River Argus, 26 February 1949, Page 8

PAKISTAN PREMIER ON INDIAN RELATIONS

KARACHI, Feb. 20

Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Liaquat Alt Khan, in a foreign policy statement to-day, said that India and Pakistan must co-operate more closely. “We must go forward shoulder to shoulder.” Ali Khan said that relations with India were the key to Pakistan’s foreign affairs. The relationships between the two countries had been bad because of Kashmir, but a just solution to Kashmir could be found if both the Indian and Pakistan Governments honestly adhered to their obligations. Pakistan, he said, would always strive to strengthen and better her relations with India. Ali Khan said that Palestine’s future should have been, decided by a plebiscite of the Palestine people, not by Security Council resolutions. Palestine belonged to the Arabs and no other people had a right to it.

He claimed Idonesia should be given full independence. “With the new awakening in Asia, the time for colonialism has ended. Whatever we can do to help the Indonesian people we shall do.” Reviewing the Dominion’s defences, Ali Khan declared: “Our armed strength is such that, if we are attacked, we shall not be destroyed without destroying our enemy.” Pakistan’s defensive preparations were not planned for aggressive designs. Ali Khan said that before partition in 1947, Britain gave Pakistan only two months to form a Government. He added: “If the British were thrown out of London and had to establish an administration in two months, I am sure they could not have done it. We accepted their challenge and we succeeded.”