Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has congratulated the nation on the arrival of the new year 2023 and stressed that they should make a new start for a bright future by forgetting the last year’s pains and learning from previous mistakes. In a special message on the herald of the new year, he prayed that 2023 might dawn with prosperity, and progress of the country, Prime Minister Office Media Wing said in a press release on Sunday.
2023 will bring progress and development
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also wished that the entire world might take a positive start out of the political, economic, and law and order turmoil of the year 2022 and 2023 might be a forerunner to ending of wars, poverty, terrorism, sectarianism, crimes and the class divide worldwide.
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Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif numbered that during the last year, Pakistan faced a number of difficulties and problems. The prime minister said that the incumbent government by sacrificing its politics, worked hard to save Pakistan from economic evasion, in which it had succeeded to a great extent.
New Year 2023
During this period, Shehbaz Sharif said, climate change brought the worst floods in the country in which hundreds of people died while thousands of others were wounded. He added that more than 33 million people had been affected. He maintained that a developing country like Pakistan suffered an economic loss of $30 billion due to the impact of Covid-19.
The Prime Minister claimed that he visited flood-hit people of the country and tried his best to console them.
On the occasion of the new year, he renewed the pledge of making his tireless efforts to enhance the economic situation of Pakistan, rehabilitate the flood-hit people, eliminate terrorism and reduce the difficulties of the people.
Shehbaz Sharif called upon the nation to collectively struggle for transforming the country into a cradle of prosperity, progress and peace.
He added, “Let’s promise on the beginning of 2023 that we shall not cease from offering any sacrifice to transform the motherland into a country as envisioned by the Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal,”.
The Prime Minister further said that Pakistan was a trust of the forefathers and they should fully dedicate themselves for its prosperity and progress.
![NEW YORK: Pakistan's former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, leading Pakistan’s high-level parliamentary delegation, on Tuesday warned that India's aggressive actions pose a serious threat to peace in South Asia and urged the international community to take note of India's aggressive conduct. Bilawal was addressing a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York on recent regional developments after the military conflict between India and Pakistan. The Pakistani delegation is in New York to present Pakistan’s stance on the military escalation with India and to challenge New Delhi’s narrative at the global level. The visit is part of Pakistan’s sustained diplomatic outreach to brief key UN stakeholders on the alarming regional situation. The Pakistani delegation is also scheduled to arrive in Washington today, where it plans to engage with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, other senior officials, lawmakers, and think tanks till June 6. The team will also visit London and Brussels. Speaking at the press conference, Bilawal said that he wanted to use the opportunity to share Pakistan’s perspective on the recent military conflict with India in the wake of the Pahalgam attack and the way forward. Bilawal said that the “illegal strikes” launched by India as part of its ‘Operation Sindoor’ were “in violation of the UN Charter, international law”. He said the attacks had targeted civilian infrastructure, places of worship, energy infrastructure and innocent women and children. He said India had used the April 22 terrorist attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s (IIOJK) Pahalgam as a pretext to launch the attack inside Pakistan. Following the Pahalgam incident, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offered publicly to India that Pakistan was ready to be part of any impartial international investigation into this attack. “We did so because we were confident, our hands were clean and we had nothing to do with this terrorist attack. “We expressed our sympathy with the victims of terrorism and Pakistan has consistently and unequivocally condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” he said, adding that PM Sharif had immediately expressed Pakistan’s willingness to India and the global community to be part of any impartial international investigation. “Indian government refused Pakistan's offer and chose instead to conduct their illegal strikes. Pakistan only then acted in self-defence, we never initiated any violence against India,” Bilawal said. Bilawal emphasised that Pakistan never initiated hostilities against India but responded to Indian aggression by downing six Indian fighter jets. "The Pakistani military had responded with precision the night of the first Indian attack and only targeted and downed six planes because we believed those were the ones to release their load on Pakistan”. He stated that US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio played a vital role in achieving a ceasefire during heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours. “We’ve seen during the course of this conflict how quickly the escalation ladder between our two countries rose and the concern is that the next time there is such an incident, there may not be time for the international community to intervene before things get a lot worse. That is why it is absolutely important for Pakistan and the international community to continue to pursue dialogue and diplomacy as the only viable path to peace.” He said Pakistan’s position was to hold a “comprehensive dialogue” with India that would include the issue of terrorism as well. The head of the Pakistani delegation said that no civilized nation can support the use of water as a weapon and urged the international community to play its part, questioning, "What would be the global reaction if someone’s lifeline was cut off?" He stressed that Pakistan has paid a heavy price in the fight against terrorism and has suffered the most. “The single largest number of terrorist attacks that take place in any one country is Pakistan. The single largest number of victims of terrorism is Pakistan. I myself have suffered at the hands of terrorists. My mother [Benazir Bhutto] was assassinated by the terrorists.” Bilawal also criticised India for targeting water reservoirs and civilian areas, including mosques, during its attacks. Calling negotiations the only path to peace, Bilawal reiterated that the unresolved Kashmir dispute remains the root cause of regional instability. He urged the global community to take notice of India’s aggressive conduct.](https://wenewsenglish.com/storage/2025/06/Bilawal-Bhutto-Zardari-300x180.jpg)
