Greece boat tragedy: Shehbaz fumes at failure to timely arrest human traffickers

ISLAMABAD/ FRANCE: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday directed Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah to supervise the investigation and formulate necessary legislative proposals for the complete prevention of human trafficking. He was chairing a high-level meeting with respect to the Greece boat incident. He also directed the investigation committee on the Greece shipwreck incident to finalize its proceedings and present its report as soon as possible. Expressing anger over the incident, the prime minister questioned why the criminal activities of human smuggling could not be timely stopped. He asked why concrete preventive measures were not taken despite repeated happenings of such kind of incidents. The prime minister directed the relevant authorities to bring all those responsible for human smuggling to justice as soon as possible.

Federal ministers Rana Sanaullah, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Tariq Fatimi, DG FIA, Chief Secretary Azad Jammu and Kashmir and other relevant senior officials were present in the meeting. On June 14, a boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea near Greece, in which only 104 people have been rescued alive. Out of these, 12 are from Pakistan. So far, a total of 79 bodies have been recovered from the sea. The meeting was told that the coordination cell established in the Ministry of Interior was working 24 hours. The families of missing persons can contact the cell anytime.

The meeting was informed that after the incident, a total of 10 FIRs had been registered while 15 people had been arrested, including the main accused of the incident. An organized network from different countries was involved in human trafficking. The prime minister directed the FIA to promptly complete the detailed investigation and take effective measures to prevent it.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in Paris to attend the New Global Financing Pact Summit. He was received by Pakistan’s ambassador in France and diplomatic officials, besides senior French government authorities.

Federal ministers Sherry Rehman, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Marriyum Aurangzeb, and Special Assistant to the PM Tariq Fatemi are part of the prime minister’s entourage. Prior to leaving for France, the premier said he will present Pakistan’s position on the need for restructuring of the international financial institutions (IFIs) to fight the contemporary challenges facing humanity.

“As a leading stakeholder in G-77 plus China grouping and also as a country adversely hit by climate change threat, Pakistan is better positioned for this role,” he said while departing for France to attend the New Global Financing Pact Summit. The prime minister is paying his official visit to France at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron. The Global Financing Pact Summit will be a forum for discussion and consultation on changes in the global financial system in the future to deal with the challenges of sustainable development, alternative and renewable energy sources, the environment, and climate change.

The prime minister will address the summit as a key member of G-77 and as a head of the country, most affected by the adverse effects of climate change. Besides attending the summit, Shehbaz Sharif will also meet with the world leaders. Earlier, in his tweet, the prime minister said the reform of international financial architecture had long been a key demand relentlessly made at different forums by public policy scholars, policy practitioners and world leaders, especially from the Global South. The grave nature of challenges such as climate change, natural disasters, environment, rising levels of debt and energy transitions has rung alarm bells, he said, adding the globalization of the problems has necessitated the need for creative approaches to rethinking the global financial system to make it representative and equitable.

He said the New Global Financing Pact Summit in France represented a unique opportunity for the world to come together and agree on broad principles and steps needed for a comprehensive reform of the international financial system.

In another tweet, the prime minister said he had fervently advocated a unified approach to steer the country out of the economic challenges on a path to sustainable growth. He said employing a whole of the government approach, the coalition government had decided to set up a Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) with a mandate to frame economic policies that ensure policy predictability continuity and effective implementation to revive the economy.

He said by virtue of its composition, the SIFC will serve as a top decision-making forum to push through the fundamental reforms in the structure of the economy. To begin with, the forum will focus on leveraging key sectors such as IT, agriculture, energy, minerals and mining and defence production, he said. He said attracting investment from friendly countries remains one of the key goals of the SIFC. The immediate task is to increase Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to $5 billion, he said.

In a separate tweet, Shehbaz said early childhood education was a building block for shaping the personality and determining career pathways for the children. “This is at this early stage in their educational journey that they imbibe the basic norms and values of social conduct. Happy to announce the holding of the Pakistan Learning Conference 2023 which focuses on building foundations by adopting the global best practices to empower children. “I was very keen to attend the conference and listen to the varied perspectives of scholars and policy practitioners from different backgrounds but could not make it due to my commitment to represent Pakistan at a global financial moot in Paris. However, I wish the conference all the best and look forward to its recommendations for building a resilient and happy future for our children” he said.