PTI terms Pak PM’s speech at UNGA ‘copy paste’ version of Imran Khan’s address

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday termed prime minister Shehbaz Sharif’s speech at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) as a copy-paste version of Imran Khan’s speech at the same platform.

“It was a copy-paste of Imran Khan’s address,” PTI Senior Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a statement, reported Geo News.

Qureshi said that Shehbaz addressed the issues in a similar manner as the PTI chairman did during his speech. “Maybe he copy-pasted an earlier speech of Imran Khan.”

It was a good gesture of Shehbaz Sharif to remind the developed world that they were behind the climate catastrophes across the globe, but what steps have Shehbaz Sharif and his brother [Nawaz Shairf] taken for climate change?” Qureshi questioned pointing out to Sharif’s remark at UNGA, where he said that the purpose of his speech was to explain the impact of the climate catastrophe that has put one-third of Pakistan in such a situation that “no one had seen in living memory”.

The PTI leader alleged that if the previous governments of PPP and PML-N had built water storage facilities in the last four decades, the country would not be facing such a grave situation right now, reported Geo News.

Since June this year, Pakistan has endured harsh monsoon weather resulting in a serious humanitarian and development crisis.

According to government estimates, about 33 million people across the country have been affected by unrelenting heavy rains and flooding – the worst in decades.

Millions of acres of crops and orchards – many of those ready to harvest – have been damaged and destroyed, and the next planting season is threatened. Agriculture is a critical source of sustenance and livelihood for the majority of families in Pakistan, and for the economy of the country.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in his speech at UNGA highlighted the devastation caused by the floods in his country due to the impact of the climate catastrophe and urged the global leaders to act before it’s too late.

“For 40 days and 40 nights, biblical flood poured on us. Even today, huge swathes of the country are still underwater. 33 million people including women and children are at high risk of health hazards. More than 1,500 of my people have gone from the world including 400 children. Far more are in peril,” he said underlining that Pakistan emits less than 1 per cent of greenhouse gases yet why his people were paying the price of global warming.

He stated that the future was “dimmed by new fragility, lost homes, decimated livelihoods, deluged croplands, permanent food insecurity and exposure to uncertain futures”.

“Some 11 million people will be pushed further below the poverty line, while others will drift to cramped urban shelters, leaving little room for climate-smart rebuilding.”

“Nature has unleashed her fury on Pakistan without looking at our carbon footprint, which is next to nothing. Our actions did not contribute to this,” he reiterated.

Pakistan’s PM said that the leaders of the world have to come together to “act now.” (ANI)