Former Pakistani Ambassador to Turkmenistan, Tariq Osman Hyder on Thursday said that Kazakhstan could play a vital role for stability in the region by contributing technical experience and funding for Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline.
Tariq who read his paper titled '"Potential role of Kazakhstan in promoting peace and security" at a seminar organised by Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IRRI) on "Kazakhstan as a Bridge between the West and the Islamic World: Challenges and Opportunities," said TAP would act as major confidence building measure in the region and would lead to its stabilisation. "In terms of stabilising Afghanistan, Kazakhstan can contribute technical experience and funding for the TAP gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to and through Afghanistan to Pakistan and perhaps to India" he said.
He said that Kazakhstan could also help Pakistan both within Nuclear Supplies Group (NSG) and bilaterally, as it had done with India, develop framework for peaceful civil nuclear co-operation with Pakistan while within NSG it should support a criteria based approach under safeguard with Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), a civil nuclear power program. It also provide natural uranium fuel under safeguards for Pakistan, safeguarded civil nuclear power program.
Dr Shabbir Ahmad Khan Assistant Professor area Study Centre of Peshawar University in his paper titled "Pakistan-Kazakhstan Relation: future prospects" Pakistan and Kazakhstan need to augment their trade and economic relations bilaterally and to work jointly to cement and consolidate ECO for regional economic integration. Though the growth of trade and economic activities depend more on the private sectors, the governments have to provide trade and business friendly environment, he said adding that this is duty of the governments to liberalise, facilitate and promote trade between the states.
Additionally, he said that Pakistan and Kazakhstan have common stance on regional issues and therefore they need and must pursue joint vision to achieve the common objectives of regional security and development.
Dr Maqsudul Hasan Nuri said that the importance of Kazakhstan as a bridge between the West and the Muslim World with reference to its growing influence in the affairs of Central Asia due to its political stability and economic development. He said that Pakistan attached great importance to its relations with Central Asian States, particularly Kazakhstan. He said that the emerging geopolitical realities provide excellent opportunities to both Pakistan and Kazakhstan for co-operation and collaboration and there is a lot Pakistan could learn from Kazakhstan's efforts and success in achieving religious and cultural harmony.
Akram Zaki in his remarks as chief guest said that since the primary concern of Kazakhstan was security in Asia, it was crucial to establish peace in Afghanistan. Dr Saifur Rehman Malik, Dimash Abdullin also spoke on the role of Kazakhstan as Chairman of Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Inter-Religious Dialogue and Harmony.
Muhammad Munir in his paper on "The Security Dimensions of OSCE Summit" said that Kazakhstan can serve as a valuable example of tolerance and inter ethnic co-existence. Its role will be particularly important in containing negative perceptions of Muslims in Europe in the post-9/11 world.