PTI-led govt needs to review its performance, says Maleeha.

Byline: Peerzada Salman

KARACHI -- The present government needs to review its performance. It doesn`t have to do it publicly but it has to see where course correction is needed.

This was said by Pakistan`s former ambassador to the United Nations Dr Maleeha Lodhi while answering a question put to her by Dr Huma Baqai at a Zoom meeting organised by Lightstone Publishers Ltd on Friday evening.

Dr Baqai started off the conversation by talking about the research that she had recently done on Dr Lodhi, part of which was about the fact that she was one of the 100 women going to influence the 21st century.

Dr Lodhi said it was a reference to a Time magazine article in the 1990s and `you should not believe everything you read`. This brought the host to Dr Lodhi`s days as editor of The News when she refusedtotakeahalf-pageadvertandran a report instead. Dr Lodhi replied she used to push back very hard as editor.

`There`s always tension in every newspaper between the commercial and the e ditorial sides.` At that time Mir Shakil-urRehman, who she hoped would be released soon, said to her `You keep challenging me`, and she responded: `I don`t have a choice, you`ve made me the editor and I have to do my job.In today`s context the former ambassador said we`ve gone through ups and downs, and this is the freedom that the media has brought in Pakistan, it`s not given to the media. There have been phases in which media freedom has been under assault. Even today there are unspoken restrictions on the media which are different from the past [martial law period]. The media has played a key role in Pakistan`s democratisation.

Without it there would`ve been no democracy in Pakistan.Answering a question on multilateralism, Dr Lodhi first pointed out that one of her memorable moments in life was her meeting with Nelson Mandela in London. During the conversation with him, he constantly kept talking about hope and stressed on idealism the young generation must be idealistic.

She argued that multilateralism is facing a huge challenge, mostly coming from the United States; but it`s not just the US, other countries, too, are challenging it. It is in crisis, but `in a way it islike democracy which is the worst form of governance except for everything else` She rejected the idea of a new cold war with reference to the China-US tussle.

Kashmir issue On the issue of Kashmir, Dr Lodhi said Pakistan has had a consistent policy on Kashmir [in the UN]. Every Pakistani government...

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