UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif appealed for a peaceful end to the dispute over Kashmir and deplored regional instability, invoking the perennial themes of Pakistan's U.N. addresses after dedicating the first half of his speech Friday to the ravages of recent floods.
Dressed in a sober business suit instead of Khan’s favored waistcoat-and-salwar-kameez combination, Sharif didn’t once mention the United States by name.He was impassioned, at times vigorously tapping the rostrum or demonstratively bringing his fists together, but his words struck a less combative tone.
“Pakistan is a partner for peace,” Sharif said before departing from prepared remarks: “But Mr. President, peace can only be ensured and guaranteed when the rights of communities who have been suffering over decades, and subjugated over decades, earn their freedom and are respected.” Sharif’s speech also represented a departure from last year, when Khan expressed optimism about the then-incipient Taliban rule in Afghanistan and exhorted the General Assembly not to isolate the new government. A year later, no U.N. member state has recognized the Taliban government.
Above all, he echoed a fear common to countries who typically do not dominate the global discourse: “My real worry is about the next stage of this challenge, when the cameras would have gone or left this august assembly and the story just shifts away to conflicts like Ukraine,” he said of the flooding recovery. “My question is, will we be left alone, high and dry?”