Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said that India is directly involved in sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan and also trying to destabilise the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

Speaking at the inaugural of two days international conference on ‘Strengthening Peace and Cooperation in South Asia: Incentives and Constraints’ organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute and the Hanns Seidel Foundation here on Tuesday, Aziz said the India’s bid to isolate Pakistan was only a myopic thinking and a futile attempt to assuage the local populace. “Pakistan cannot remain aloof to the imbalance of strategic stability created in the region due to the lopsided western policies.”

In an indirect reference to India, the adviser said the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had fallen prey to hegemonic designs of one the regional countries. He; however, said Pakistan believed that SAARC had the potential to promote peace, development and stability in South Asia. India, he said, had increased ceasefire violations at the LoC to constrain Pakistan Army’s ability to deploy more resources on the western borders with Afghanistan. Aziz said India’s opposing of the CPEC was tantamount to obstruct economic development of Pakistan. He said Pakistan was exercising maximum restraint in the wake of region’s growing geo-strategic imbalance. He urged international community to adopt a balanced approach rather than taking sides.

He said the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) should adopt a non-discriminatory approach for membership of the countries, which had never been a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Former foreign minister Inamul Haq demanded dialogue between Pakistan and India without any conditions attached. He said terrorism was not in interest of any country.

Dr Moonis Ahmar, dean Faculty of Social Sciences University of Karachi, said economic dividends of peace would substantially improve quality of life of more than one billion people in terms of better education, health, housing and transport facilities. Dr Huang Ying, associate researcher from the Institute of World Economic Relations, China, said the ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative and The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) had the potential to help South Asia, a region considered the least connected in terms of infrastructure, trade and investments, to prosper economically.

Dayani Pomogoda from Sri Lanka stressed the need of economic cooperation, bilateral and regional trade and people to people contact for regional development. Brigadier General (r) Dharma Bahadur Baniya from Nepal said South Asia was going through a phase of economic transformation from low to high growth, but persistent shortage of energy had been a major factor in restricting the region’s rapid upward trajectory.