Pak Prez makes U-turn on 'Palestine solution' after row

After courting controversy by proposing a 'one-state solution' to the Palestine problem, Pakistan President Dr Arif Alvi has now said that Islamabad supports a just and peaceful resolution of the vexed issue, based on the 'two-state solution'.

Alvi's comments walking back on the earlier stance came during a meeting with Dr Saleh bin Abdullah Humaid, Imam Khatib at Masjid Al-Haram, and adviser at Saudi Royal Courts of Saudi Arabia on Thursday, according to a report in the newspaper Dawn.

'President Dr Arif Alvi has reiterated that Pakistan firmly supports a just and peaceful resolution of the Palestine issue, based on the two-state solution. He said that the world must realise the pain of the Palestinian people and play its role in ending the Israeli atrocities in Gaza that had killed thousands of innocent people, including women and children,' an official press release issued by the Presidency said on Friday.

At the meeting on Thursday, which discussed the situation in Gaza, Islamophobia, and other challenges faced by the Muslim world, Dr Humaid stated that the Muslim world had unanimously adopted a stance on the Palestine issue, advocating for Palestinians' rights based on 'the two-state solution'.

Since the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on its territory that killed 1,200 people and held over 200 people hostage, Israel has been pounding the Gaza Strip killing more than 12,000 persons.

Earlier last week and prior to that on November 11, the Presidency had issued a statement quoting President Alvi suggesting a 'one-state solution' to the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict during a telephone conversation with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas. But the office later sent a 'revised' version of the press release with no mention of the president's suggestion.

Not being in line with the country's principled and historic stance on the issue, Alvi's proposal of the 'one-state solution' was widely panned by one and all in Pakistan.

In fact, President Alvi's statement on November 22 also prompted the caretaker government to distance itself from the remarks made and calls for his resignation in the Senate.

'If the two-state solution was not acceptable to Israel, then the one-state solution was the only way where Jews, Muslims and [a] good percentage of Christians could live to exercise equal political rights,' the original press release quoted Alvi as telling Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas last week.

Almost all news TV channels ran the president's statement, which was also released by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

The Presidency later retracted the press release and issued a new one, which omitted any mention of the controversial proposal.