Pakistani lawmaker Syed Mustafa Kamal's speech comparing India's achievements and the pressing issues in his country has been going viral, by mentioning India's moon landing mission. The Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) leader said that while India is landing on the moon, Karachi is making news of children being killed by falling in open gutters.
While India became the first country in the world to land on the South Pole of the moon with its Chandrayaan 3 mission, Pakistan is grappling with economic distress, high inflation, and mounting debt and is seeking a new loan programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
"Today, the condition in Karachi is that, while the world is going to the moon, children are dying by falling into gutter in Karachi. On the same screen, there is news that India landed on the moon, and just after two seconds, the news is that a child died in an open gutter in Karachi," Kamal said in his address to the Parliament on Wednesday.
He highlighted the lack of fresh water in Karachi. The MQM-P leader also said citing a report that there are 70 lakh children in Karachi and over 2.6 crore children in Pakistan, who are not able to go to schools.
"Karachi is the revenue engine of Pakistan. The two seaports operational in Pakistan since its inception, are both in Karachi. We [Karachi[ are the gateway to the entire Pakistan, Central Asia to Afghanistan...For 15 years, Karachi was not given even a bit of fresh water. Even the water that came, the tanker mafia hoarded it and sold it to the people of Karachi," Kamal said.
"We have a total of 48,000 schools, but a new report says that out of that 11,000 are 'ghost schools'. 70 lakh children in Sindh don't go to school and a total of 2,62,00,000 children in the country don't go to school...if we just focus on this, the leaders of the country shouldn't even get proper sleep," the Pakistani Parliamentarian added.
Abhinandan Varthaman Finds Mention In Speech
He also mentioned in his speech Indian Air Force fighter pilot Abhinandan Varthaman who was was held captive in Pakistan for 60 hours after his MiG-21 Bison was shot down in an aerial dogfight that triggered after the Pakistan Air Force's (PAF) retaliatory airstrikes in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.
MQM leader Syed Mustafa Kamal said in Parliament that after capturing Indian pilot, Pakistan treated him like royalty, gave him great tea, and released the pilot to India in less than two days, adding that his country does not have the power to fight a war.
On February 27, 2019, days after the Pulwama attack, Varthaman was flying a MiG-21 as a part of a sortie that was scrambled to intercept airstrikes in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan Air Force. He lost communications with the IAF command and inadvertently crossed into Pakistani airspace during a dogfight that ensued, during which his aircraft was struck by a missile.
Varthaman ejected and safely descended into the village of Horran in Pakistan-governed Azad Kashmir, approximately 7 km from the Line of Control.
Pakistan released videos and images showing Varthaman being rescued from a violent mob of villagers by its soldiers, receiving first aid, and being questioned while blindfolded. Varthaman was subsequently released on what Pakistan said was humanitarian grounds and returned to India on March 1 2019.
