Addressing the inaugural session of the three-day
conference of Saarc Speakers and Parliamentarians currently being held
at Islamabad, President Asif Ali Zardari talked of the whopping cost
that Pakistan’s economy had borne as a result of its participation in
the war on terror.
He urged all countries of the South Asian Association
for Regional Cooperation to join hands to tackle the twin-menaces of
extremism and terrorism. Besides, he underlined, Pakistan had suffered
heavily in terms of human loss, losing as many as 40,000 of its innocent
citizens. Arguably, both extremism and terrorism are the most daunting
challenges confronting the country. Not only that, the curse has to be
tackled as a first priority because without its containment the future
would appear scarily bleak; lack of security of life and property would
come in the way of economic resurgence, in fact, affect virtually every
facet of life. Most of the other countries of the Saarc have either
experienced the scourge or are experiencing it in one form and the
other. However, joining hands would inevitably imply a sincere effort to
put an end to it and necessitate a measure of confidence in one
another’s policies. Mr Zardari’s remark that collective approach to
explore opportunities for the benefit of the people points to the stage
when terrorism had been taken care of. He touched on the subject of food
security as well, saying that Saarc parliamentarians should come up
with a strategy to ensure that the 1.6 billion population of the Saarc
was assured of the availability of enough stock of food and there was no
worry about shortages. He believed that democracy was prerequisite to
economic growth and political stability and said that Pakistan had taken
bold decisions to empower Parliament. According to its agenda, the
conference is to discuss ‘steps to promote parliamentary diplomacy,
joint efforts to ensure food security, expansion of trade and economic
development, checks on narcotics trafficking and terrorism’.
After
his address to the conference, President Zardari spoke to the media
parrying questions about his holding of dual office in light of Supreme
Court judgment in the Asghar Khan case, simply saying that the future
would tell what it held in store for him. That was an indication that he
was not too concerned about the matter and that the upcoming general
elections would settle it by the electorate.
Speaker National
Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza referred to the issues of poverty,
unemployment, terrorism and shrinking economic opportunities, calling
them serious challenges. There is little doubt that economic
development, the availability of jobs and ending the evil of poverty are
interlinked. The Saarc, though decades old, has failed to make its
mark, unlike other thriving regional associations. The simple reason is
crucial issues among major countries of the Saarc continue to bedevil
relations between them, sabotaging the efforts to move forward together.
The need is to get rid of these disputes first.