Pakistan’s narrative needs to be told: minister

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry has said that Pakistan’s narrative needs to be highlighted across the world, a statement said.

Addressing the closing session of Margalla Dialogue on Tuesday, he said: “No effort was made to build a local and true narrative of Pakistan, while pointing out how the neighbouring country had invested in human capital and media in Afghanistan to negate Pakistan’s positive role, whereas we kept our fingers crossed.”

Mentioning the Fall of Dhaka, he said: “We blundered by shunting out foreign media from East Pakistan and the same moved to Delhi to distort our image. The result is that Pakistan stands maligned to this day because our side of the story was never told.”

He also said Pakistan is a modern republic and is not a theocratic state and referred to Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s August 11, 1947 speech, saying that it forms our social contract. This aspect too needs to be furthered in the political and international image building dialogue.

He appreciated the Islamabad Policy Research Institute’s (IPRI) efforts in research and valued its contribution in disseminating the real image of Pakistan.