Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar Tuesday said the resolution of Kashmir dispute in line with the Kashmiris' right to self-determination was directly related to Pak-India ties normalisation process and for regional peace.
Addressing an international seminar on "Crossroads Asia: Dynamics of Peace and Progress" here at National Defence University (NDU), he said, "Today, we have a broader quest for peace and progress at 'Crossroad Asia' that comes into sharper focus as the global environs experience an erosion of uni-polar order and 'Rise of the Rest' vis-à-vis the West". The upcoming phase 2015-2025, he said, should be revealing in terms of system-wide changes and their trans-regional impact.
This phenomenon, he added, was critically important for Pakistan in view of its geopolitical disposition at the intersection of three regions: South Asia, Central Asia and West Asia. The frame of today's Seminar, he said, was truly reflected the twin-track changes in the geopolitical and geo-economic domains, which were relevant to a reassessment of the emerging scenario.
"It is, therefore, necessary that stakeholders re-visit the Asian scene beyond the re-focus on the so-called 'Asia Pivot', and gauge the upcoming roles of other stakeholders in addressing hotbeds of conflict and providing impulse for economic growth", he added. Ishaq Dar said the progress in the broader region, in terms of its pace and quality, would be determined by a greater trans-regional connectivity if the stakeholders were able to address hotbeds of conflict.
Geography, he said, had exposed Pakistan to conflict-prong situations in "our neighbourhood that have tremendously impacted on our socio-economic fabric and progress as part of a larger fraternity of nations. "Concurrently, it is our geopolitical disposition that should promise us a greater responsibility and a role to unravel the conflict-pronged situations and to do our part in erecting sustainable structures for peace and economic growth in a trans-regional setting,"
It was in this context, he said, "We would like to look at Afghanistan beyond the current peril and to stabilisation in this brotherly nation, following decades of conflict, and to their move towards playing a role that belongs to them". Similarly, he said, "We earnestly hope that stakeholders in the region would acknowledge and uphold the primacy of Kashmiri people in the triangle of dispute and do their part to address the aspirations of 16 million Kashmiris.
"A resolution of Kashmir dispute in keeping with the people's right to self-determination is directly related to any significant progress in India-Pakistan normalisation process", he added. The minister said Pakistan's concern for peace and security in the Middle Eastern arena was equally well placed and pronounced. "It is our full conviction that the way to peace in the Middle East lies through justice for the Palestinian people and by way of attainment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Denial of this right will only expand the sense of neglect and unfold various manifestations of extremism and militancy on a broader canvas", he observed.
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