Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal sparked an outcry through his comparison of Pakistan with Cuba while highlighting poor performance and incompetence of the previous government.
The minister said: “We not want Pakistan to become Cuba or North Korea. We have to set Pakistan on the path to development, like Malaysia, Turkey, China and South Korea.”
Ahsan Iqbal, in fact, was trying to draw a comparison of the poor performance of the previous, saying that the “PTI government had hampered the CPEC’s progress and soured ties with the European Union, the United States and even brotherly Muslim countries, pushing the county into isolation.”
Responding to Iqbal’s statement, Cuban Ambassador in Pakistan Zener Caro, in a tweet, said, “Fortunately, Minister Ahsan Iqbal’s disrespectful mention of Cuba in his press conference in Lahore does not represent and has nothing to do with Pakistanis’ true respect and deep affection for Cuba and its people.”
Following it, former Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari also took to Twitter and gave a fact check to current federal minister.
She said, “Ahsan Iqbal’s ignorance or desperate desire to please his US regime change conspiracy masters has now led him to demean Cuba by saying he doesn’t want Pakistan to become like Cuba!”
“Cuba is a country that fought hard to win freedom & rid itself of US interference where the US had imposed a clause in Cuba’s constitution to maintain control over its policies”, she added.
Other people also commented over the minister’s comparison and termed it inappropriate.
