Speakers discuss need to address public issues in South Asia

Renowned political and social scientists at international conference have called upon the governments of South Asian countries to resolve mutual issues, enhance economic cooperation and focus on serving their nations who were living in poor conditions.
They were addressing the inaugural ceremony of two-day international conference on "Changing Regional Political Dynamics in South Asia" organized by Punjab University Centre for South Asian Studies and Department of Political Science here on Wednesday.
PU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Zakria Zakir, former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmed Khan, renowned political analyst Professor Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi, Dean Faculty of Arts and Humanities Professor Dr Muhammad Iqbal Chawla, distinguished participants from different countries and a large number of students were present on the occasion.
In his address, former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmed Khan said that the world was facing challenges of diplomacy mixed with brute force, power struggle, invasion in the name of self-defence and religion based culture of extremism and terrorism.
He also said that Pakistan wanted to resolve issues with India through dialogue but India was not willing to extend cooperation. He said that India had practically made SAARC dysfunctional, which is a great loss for enhancing regional cooperation. He said that we must do the things which were in our interest.
He also said that we must turn our geopolitical situation into an asset rather than liability. He said that Pakistan had facilitated establishment of peace in Afghanistan but baseless allegations were being leveled against our country PU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Zakria Zakir said that the poor nations of South Asian countries were facing serious problems like poverty, lack of basic health and education facilities etc. He said that the people were struggling to survive in poor living conditions and it was difficult for majority of them to make both ends meet. He said that there were social injustices in our societies and we must give priority to resolving social issues.
Professor Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi said that the victory of allied forces in Afghanistan was becoming impossible. He said that Russia was strengthening ties with the countries in the region. He said that India had forgotten to solve issues like poverty and moving towards conflict. He said that human welfare had been ignored and there was imbalance of power and wealth in South Asia. He said that the governments must focus on developing human resource as our professionals had performed excellent at international level.