Islamabad; January 17, 2023: President Dr. Arif Alvi has said that the world needs humanity-based morality and a new world order where every person living on this planet is valued, regarded as equal to any other person without discrimination of color, creed, language, religion or race, adding that the developed countries pursued policies which suit their vested interest and impose their policies and thinking on the less developed country without factoring into their specific needs, wants and preferences. He said that the vested interest-based world order set by the developed countries had to be followed by the less developed nations without giving them leverage and keeping in view their way of life, preferences and social and cultural values.
The President made these remarks during the inaugural session of the 2nd International Annual Conference titled, ‘Security Dialogue’, organized by the Institute of Regional Studies, today.
He said that the idea that in addition to the traditional ways of doing things, there was a need to adopt non-traditional approach to identify areas of conflicts, their impact, reach and ways to resolve them.
He said that the traditional concept of the nations and nation-states were being challenged which needed to be handled on a top priority basis but this could only be done with international cooperation in the key areas of security, food and climate change, adding that global warming had affected human beings and other living and non-living things on the planet as according to one estimate 50 of species were in danger of extinct by 2050 and insects were facing stress affected the weather systems resulting into catastrophic natural disasters.
He said that much closer and meaningful international cooperation was needed to restore ecological balance and also in agriculture to avoid hunger and malnutrition. He said that there existed a paradox in the world as few had abundance of food and resources whereas few were facing a shortage of basic necessities of life. He emphasized the need for traditional and non-traditional cooperation for averting conflicts in the world and dialogue could play pivotal role in this regard. He said that there was a need to have cooperation in the cyber world and health sector as well. He lamented the fact that the regional organizations were established for regional cooperation and for resolving regional conflicts but if the bigger countries like India in SAARC did not give due weightage to the organization, it would lose its scope and efficacy. He said that India should not sow the seeds of fundamentalism and discrimination against minorities. He said that the issue of Kashmir was also on the backburners due to the no-cooperative attitude of India.
The President said that the institutions should be strengthened for the development of a country adding that democracy could be strengthened with consultation and following the constitution.
While talking about uneven population growth in the world, he said that there was a need to manage population growth by benchmarking the best practices of many countries that were successful in curtailing the rising rate of population by achieving economic growth, adding that half of the pregnancies in Pakistan could be avoided by providing contraceptives to the population.
He said that presently it was an era of abundance, we can create electricity at much less cost without risking the deterioration of the environment by resorting to green energy production means like solar and wind. He said that technology was fast developing to curtain the carbon emissions. Around 148 million acre feet of water comes to Pakistan through rain and snow system which is enough for our needs including for production of all kinds of crops provided we are able to preserve the precious resource, reduce wastage and use efficient means of agriculture and other uses, he said. This can be achieved by developing local and indigenous solutions and by learning from best practices observed by developed countries like the Netherlands which is 19 times smaller than Pakistan but is the second biggest food exporter of the world, he added.
While highlighting the importance of commitment and determination, he said that the international community joined hands to curtail the speed of ozone layer depletion promptly and affectively but still it took 30 to 35 years to achieve meaningful success. He lauded world cooperation during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Ambassador Nadeem Riyaz in his welcome address said that the Institute of Regional Studies focused its research on South Asia, India, Afghanistan, Iran, China, regional security and cyber security. He said that the purpose of the conference was to provide inputs to the policymakers, especially in the areas of traditional and non-traditional concerns, climate change and future of comprehensive security.
