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There will be New Year resolutions but no New Year celebrations for Pakistanis as they enter 2024. Anwaarul Haq Kakar, the caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan, said that the government has “completely banned all kinds of events regarding the New Year celebrations” to express solidarity with the people in Palestine.

In a video message, Kakar said the nation and the Muslim ‘Ummah’ (brotherhood) were deeply saddened by the “genocide of the oppressed Palestinians, especially the massacre of innocent children”, in Gaza and the West Bank.

“Since October 7, 2023, more than 21,000 innocent Palestinians have been martyred by the brutal Israeli forces, including a large number of innocent children — around 9,000,” Kakar was quoted as saying by the Dawn.

Kakar urged the Pakistani public to show solidarity with the people of Gaza and observe simplicity at the beginning of the New Year.

Pakistan has been one of the biggest backers of the Palestinian cause and had justified Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel and abduction of Israeli civilians on October 7 this year.

The Pakistani prime minister pointed out that the government had sent two consignments of relief goods to help Palestinian people, while the third consignment was being sent soon. Likewise, he said that the government of Pakistan was in close contact with Egypt and Jordan for timely relief of the Palestinians, evacuation of the injured from Gaza and their treatment.