MARCH 8, 2019
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said that he did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize but suggested who could be conferred with the honour.
“I am not worthy of the Nobel Peace prize. The person worthy of this would be the one who solves the Kashmir dispute according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people and paves the way for peace & human development in the subcontinent,’ the Pakistan Prime Minister tweeted.
The cricketer-turned-politician was reacting to an online campaign where more than 300,000 people have signed petitions demanding Imran Khan be given the Nobel Peace Prize after he freed Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman whose MiG fighter crashed as he chased Pakistani jets.
This came days after Indian Air Force struck a camp run by terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad deep inside Pakistan territory. Varthaman was released on Friday.
The hashtag #NobelPeaceForImranKhan began trending on Twitter last week after Khan announced that the captured pilot would be released as a “peace gesture”, news agency AFP reported.
Two similarly-worded campaigns on the change.org platform launched by users in the UK and Pakistan called for Imran Khan to be nominated for next year’s prize “for his peace efforts and dialogues in the Asian region on diverse conflicts”.
They have gained more than 240,000 and 60,000 digital signatures respectively.
Pakistan’s information minister Fawad Chaudhry Saturday also submitted a resolution in the country’s parliament demanding Khan be given the award for his contribution to peace in the region, AFP reports.
“Imran Khan played a sagacious role in de-escalating tension between Pakistan and India,” the resolution said.
In his speech announcing Abhinandan’s release, Khan referred to the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war as he called for talks with New Delhi.
Thousands of people around the world are allowed to make nominations for the Peace Prize, including members of parliament and government ministers, former laureates and some university professors.
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Courtesy/Source: Hindustan Times
