Federal Secretary of Defence Lieutenant General Asif Yaseen Malik (Retd) on Wednesday blamed India for the failure of comprehensive strategic dialogue between Pakistan and India. Pakistan was facing a number of internal and external security threats while extremism and militancy is the biggest threat the country faces, said Asif while addressing the inaugural session of a conference organised by Strategic Vision Institute (SVI) to discuss the major developments in Politico-strategic dynamics of South Asia on the horizon around 2014.
Malik said that US forces were likely to complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014, but the Afghan government was perplexed over the post-withdrawal situation. He said that Pakistan was committed to its stance of solving all outstanding issues with India through sustainable, serious and productive dialogue India on one side wants to establish people to people contacts and on the other side manoeuvring in constructing dams on Pakistani waters.
During his speech, he reminded that global policy shift was seen after 9/11 incident that also affected many countries including Pakistan. "Terrorism has increased and Pakistan is the biggest victim of it, he said. He also linked the prevailing security challenges for Pakistan with the post 9/11 event saying that socio-political and economic issues were furthered due to the terrorism. However he urged the nation to be unanimous and united against the existing security challenges.
Stressing the need for strategic studies and relevant institutes, the defence secretary said that taking benefit from intellectuals and diligent Pakistani talent had been ignored in past. However, he admired the founding of SVI and urged the concerned population to take full benefits from these institutions that could help making decisions and formulate policies.
Former Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed underscored the need for comprehensive and co-ordinated strategy to cope with scenarios developing in the South Asian Region. Shamshad noted that Pakistan's active role in Afghanistan remained significant for the sustainable and durable peace and stability in Afghanistan. He said the US had "no clear plan for the post-2014...Afghanistan".
"The US has no coherent plan towards dialogue process in Afghanistan. Even the post troop's withdrawal scenario is hazy," said Shamshad, adding that the only visible development in that context was, taking responsibility of security of the Afghanistan by its own people.
He urged the international community's to realise ground realties that Pakistan had paid the heaviest cost in the on-going war on terror in terms of losing 47,000 lives and billions of dollars in damage to its economic infrastructure of Pakistan. "International investors are reluctant to visit Pakistan because of the same reasons," he maintained.
President and Executive Director of SVI Dr Zafar Iqbal Cheema said that SVI was an autonomous, multi-disciplinary and non-partisan institution established in January this year. He said the SVI's basic aim was to "protect strategic foresight on issues of national and international" importance through "dispassionate, impartial and independent research, analysis and studies".