People-to-people contacts boost ties with Yemen: Soomro

Chairman Senate, Mohammedmian Soomro on Friday said that as people to people contact paved the way for strengthening the friendly ties, frequent visits of businessmen, parliamentarians, students and people from various walks of life should be encouraged both by Yemen and Pakistan.
He was talking to Head of the Supreme Court and Head of the Supreme Judicial Council of the Republic of Yemen, Justice Edam Abdul Wahab Mohamed Al-Sawawi, who called on him at his residence here.
The Senate Chairman pointed out that Yemen was culturally very rich and beautiful country and the people of Pakistan were fully appreciative of this fact. Soomro underlined the need for increased meaningful co-operation and remarked that we should explore the possibilities of setting up of joint venture.
He informed the Yemeni head of the supreme court that Pakistan had taken various steps to ease the procedure for the issuance of visa for the Yemenis and hoped that Yemen would also take appropriate steps to ease the procedure for the issuance of student visas.
The head of Supreme court of Yemen congratulated the Supreme court of Pakistan for organising the mega event and said that it would not only promote good will but would enable them to study the judicial system of Pakistan.
He said that greater co-operation between the Apex Courts of the two countries would help remove the bottlenecks in the way of speedy dispensation of justice and further improve the judicial systems prevailing in the two countries.
Later, talking to the President of International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD), Dr Douglas Johnston, the Chairman Senate underscored the need to comprehensively address the issues of widespread poverty, deprivation, lack of access to justice and quality education in order to effectively deal with extremism and terrorism.
The Chairman said that the problem must be understood and analysed in the contexts of the global situation in the 80's particularly the post-Geneva accord period, which had left hundreds of thousands of highly indoctrinated people high and dry.
The Madressah problem, he said, therefore had its roots in the Afghan war of the 80's. The Kalashnikov culture, drugs and sectarianism were actually the by-products of the protracted Afghan war, he observed.
The Chairman said that the government was committed to promoting inter-faith harmony in the country and strengthens the civil society. The President International Center for Religion and Diplomacy lauded the Madressah reform program terming it an effective initiative, which would pave the way for a major change in the society.