President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday said that instead of supporting any polarization, Pakistan desired win-win cooperation in the fields of information technology and trade with the nations for peace and development in the region.
The president, addressing the concluding session of a two-day international conference on “South Asia: Emerging Opportunities and Challenges” said Pakistan did not want to be part of any polarization as even Pakistan’s forefathers had also advocated the co-existence before demanding a separate homeland. The president said that he was mistaken to believe that the US would have learned a lesson from the Vietnam War and would not fall into any other trap.
He told the gathering, consisting of former ambassadors and researchers, and academics, that the vested interests dominated morality in international affairs. He said the world was looking for leadership based on morality and highlighted Pakistan’s humanitarian gestures of hosting millions of refugees contrary to Europe which let them drown in the Mediterranean, besides raping and murdering them.
Referring to Narendra Modi’s biased approach targeting minorities, the president said the BJP government was adding fuel to fire through Hindutva. He said despite the repeated commitments by the United Nations, the Kashmir issue was still unresolved owing to the vested interests of the countries.
He said Europe had decided against any more wars in their own lands but destroyed other countries in Africa and the Middle East.
President Alvi said rebuilding Afghanistan was the best opportunity for Pakistan. He said the world had spent trillions of dollars for mutually assured destructions in wars, which otherwise could have been spent to alleviate poverty.
Calling for the promotion of Chinese investment in Pakistan, the president said Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Russia was of very importance. He said information technology was the biggest opening for Pakistan and the region. However, he emphasized bridging the gap between the decision-makers and the fast-developing technologies.
He said the fake news phenomenon was getting stronger which could even destroy the countries. He said the people would see an avalanche of fake news in the 2023 general elections as around 60-70% of the social media messages circulated during the last elections in India were found to be fake.
The president said the morality protecting humanity and human rights like the women’s emancipation should be the ideals for society, instead of the vested interests.
President of the Institute of Regional Studies, the host organization, Ambassador Nadeem Riaz told the gathering that the two-day event was addressed by the speakers from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Hungary, and the United Nations.
He said the conference focused on four themes including regional conflicts, domestic challenges of regional countries, global challenges with consequences for the region, and prospects for regional cooperation and prosperity.
Highlighting the key takeaways of the moot, the IRS president said the speakers believed that Pakistan was a key player in Afghanistan as unstable Afghanistan would be problematic.
The speakers also asked India to opt course of dialogue for dispute resolution with Pakistan and that human security should not be mired by the conflicts.
The experts also cautioned that 400 million people were at risk of climate migration and 10 districts of Pakistan were likely to be the hotspot due to increasing temperature.
Meanwhile, President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday said the involvement of various segments of a community including mosques, academia and health workers was important for the effective implementation of social development initiatives, particularly health and education.
Addressing here at the launch of ‘Strengthening of Social Health Protection under Sehat Sahulat Programme’, he said communities could bring about social change using these platforms and improve quality of life by adopting collective solutions to address their common problems.
The event, jointly organized by Health Services Academy, Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination, and German Development Agency focused on the government’s health initiatives including Sehat Sahulat Programme partnered by the German government for the last 14 years.
President Alvi said prioritizing education and health programmes was the most effective way to improve the socioeconomic status of people, alleviate poverty and protect families from falling into it. He said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf since its inception had envisioned transforming Pakistan into a socio-welfare state.
The president said Sehat Sahulat Programme was aimed at providing free of cost health insurance, initially to families living below the poverty line end subsequently to the rest.
