ISLAMABAD, Nov 13 (APP): President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday said the dream of peace and security in the world could not be realized until the countries looked beyond the lens of vested interests and resolved mutual conflicts on the principles of humanity.
“The world is letting the people of Kashmir suffer the humanitarian crisis while it protects its vested economic interests,” the President said at an annual Margalla Dialogue held here on ‘Peace and development in South Asia, Middle East and Central Asia (SAMECA)’.
The two-day dialogue organized by Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) gathered security and political experts from several countries to discuss scenario of current challenges in the region.
President Alvi regretted that even after passage of several resolutions of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the dispute of Kashmir, there was no progress over their implementation.
He pointed out that multinational companies had become powerful enough to hijack the opinion and policies of States to get across vested agendas of different lobbies.
He said the region could trigger a nuclear fury if important matters such as Kashmir remained unresolved, however he added that Pakistan would continue to play its role for maintaining peace in the region despite challenges.
He recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan in his first speech after assuming office conveyed a message of peace to all neighbouring countries including India and delivered a powerful speech at the forum of UN General Assembly on the issues of Islamophobia, blasphemy, money-laundering and Kashmir.
He said opening of Kartarpur Corridor spoke volumes about Pakistan’s efforts for maintaining peace regardless of several discords with India.
The same day in India, he said the unilateral decision of Indian Supreme Court in Ayodhya case gave rise to frustration among Muslims and other minorities.
President Alvi said Pakistan faced the challenges of terrorism for 30 years and learned from its experience.
The president also read out excerpts from an article titled ‘Living with peace as good neigbours’ which he wrote in 1961 as a 12-year-old in grade 8th, where he mentioned the havoc of wars and the need for tolerance to make the world free from misery.
Senior Vice President Centre for Strategic and International Studies Daniel F. Runde emphasized convergence of interests between Pakistan and the United States beyond the scope of Afghanistan’s peace.
Also holding the William A. Schreyer Chair in Global Analysis at CSIS, Runde mentioned that the ‘over-militarized Pak-U.S. ties’ needed a balanced approach with broader set of cooperation in economy and people-to-people contacts.
Chairman Strategic Policy Planning Cell Dr Moeed Yusuf said Pakistan currently had a unique opportunity of turning itself into a melting pot sitting at the geographical confluence of India, Afghanistan and Iran being the nodes of three power competitions, i.e. U.S-China, Russia-U.S. and Middle East.
He stressed that it was the time for the world shift conversation on Pakistan from security-centric approach to economy.
On Kashmir, he said it was unfortunate that economic interests of countries were dictating the policy on the conflict.
Spokesman Foreign Office Dr. Faisal during the plenary session raised concerns on India’s unconstitutional attack on Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy and called upon the world to take notice of the atrocities carried out in the occupied Valley.
Director General SASSI Dr Maria Sultan highlighted the ongoing humanitarian crisis for over three months in Jammu and Kashmir after India imposed curfew and complete communication blackout, restricting rights of people to even food and medical care.
