ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has reiterated that Pakistan will not normalize ties with India until New Delhi revokes its August 5 move in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK).
“Even though India-Pakistan relations can be a game-changer for the region, things cannot progress until India revokes its August 5 move,” Fawad Chaudhry said while addressing a press conference after a cabinet meeting in Islamabad today (Thursday).
Fawad Chaudhry said that the normalisation of trade relations with India, as previously proposed by the finance minister Hammad Azhar, is not possible because of the Indian atrocities in occupied territory.
“If India commits a massacre against Muslims and refuses to give Kashmiri people their due right, Pakistan cannot have normal diplomatic relations with India,” the federal minister added. He further said, “Pakistan wishes to normalise relations with the neighbouring state, but India should first revoke its August 5, 2019, move.”
Talking about the COVID-19 vaccination, he announced that 98 percent of the population will be inoculated for free, however, the 2% can pay and get themselves inoculated from private hospitals.
“We are determined to battle deadly pandemic as it did during the previous two waves,” he said. He also pointed out the issues with the private vaccine. “First, the importer brings the vaccine into the country, they set rates according to their wishes,” the minister added.
He added that two vaccines — Russais’s Sputnik V and China’s CanSino — have been imported in Pakistan so far. “The Russian vaccine’s rate cannot be determined at the moment, as the issue of setting its price is currently underway in the Sindh High Court,” he added.
