Daily Times

Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, Chairman of the Senate Defence Committee, has said that Pakistan, being located at a strategically important location in the region, can play vital role in promoting regional connectivity.

“Regional connectivity is need of the hour for peace and prosperity in South and Central Asia, and Pakistan is the linchpin of regional connectivity,” he said while speaking through video-link during the the concluding session of the three-day international conference titled ‘Central & South Asia Re-connected’ at the Punjab University on Saturday. The conference was organised by the Department of History & Pakistan Studies, Punjab University, in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Policymakers, stakeholders, scholars, researchers and students got a chance for a fruitful dialogue while 60 subject specific research papers and policy notes were presented during the conference.

PU Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Khalid Mahmood was the chief guest at the concluding ceremony, while Regional Director Southeast Asia Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Dr Ellino Zeino was also present. In his special note, Governor Punjab/ Chancellor PU Muhammad Balighur Rehman thanked eminent scholars for sharing their experiences. He said that through the conference, people could be able to understand the problems being faced in regional connectivity. Scholars were of the unanimous viewpoint that South Asia has lagged behind in human and social development due to political, cultural and social conflicts, both in the nature of inter and intra-state, and these have seriously hampered prosperity and progress in the region.

Speakers were unanimous that peace and harmony, instead of war and confrontation, provide windows of opportunity for developing human potential of South Asian people and asserting themselves as civilised people of the world. Dr Zeino thanked national and international delegates from Turkiye, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, England, Germany and Pakistan. She appreciated the efforts of Chairman Department of History PU Prof Dr Mahboob Hussain. She said Pakistan is a peaceful country and the people of Pakistan are very loving.