By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday said that Pakistan wanted to further enhance bilateral cooperation with the United States of America (USA) in various fields, particularly in the areas of trade and economy. He added that the Information Technology (IT) sector of the country had immense potential and foreign investors needed to capitalize upon the investment-friendly environment of the country and invest in Pakistan’s IT sector.
The President was talking to the Ambassador-designate of Pakistan to USA Sardar Masood Khan, who called on him here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.
He stated that as the government was focusing on the geo-economics, there was a need to explore further areas of cooperation to enhance bilateral trade and Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) from USA.
The President said that Pakistani diaspora in America had the potential to serve as a bridge to increase bilateral economic and commercial relations, in addition to investing in various sectors of Pakistan’s economy, particularly IT sector.
He asked the Ambassador-designate to expose the real face of India which was involved in gross human rights violations against the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir.
The President congratulated Sardar Masood Khan on his appointment as Ambassador of Pakistan to the USA and expressed the hope that he would play his role in further improving bilateral relationships with the USA.
Moreover, President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday said that instead of supporting any polarization, Pakistan desired win-win cooperation in the fields of information technology and trade with the nations for peace and development in the region.
The president, addressing the concluding session of a two-day international conference on “South Asia: Emerging Opportunities and Challenges” said Pakistan did not want to be part of any polarization as even Pakistan’s forefathers had also advocated the co-existence before demanding a separate homeland.
The president said that he was mistaken to believe that the US would have learned a lesson from the Vietnam War and would not fall into any other trap.
He told the gathering, consisting of former ambassadors and researchers, and academics, that the vested interests dominated morality in international affairs.
He said the world was looking for leadership based on morality and highlighted Pakistan’s humanitarian gestures of hosting millions of refugees contrary to Europe which let them drown in the Mediterranean, besides raping and murdering them.
Referring to Narendra Modi’s biased approach targeting minorities, the president said the BJP government was adding fuel to fire through Hindutva. He said despite the repeated commitments by the United Nations, the Kashmir issue was still unresolved owing to the vested interests of the countries.
He said Europe had decided against any more wars in their own lands but destroyed other countries in Africa and the Middle East.
President Alvi said rebuilding Afghanistan was the best opportunity for Pakistan. He said the world had spent trillions of dollars for mutually assured destructions in wars, which otherwise could have been spent to alleviate poverty.
Calling for the promotion of Chinese investment in Pakistan, the president said Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Russia was of very importance.
He said information technology was the biggest opening for Pakistan and the region. However, he emphasized bridging the gap between the decision-makers and the fast-developing technologies.
He said the fake news phenomenon was getting stronger which could even destroy the countries. He said the people would see an avalanche of fake news in the 2023 general elections as around 60-70% of the social media messages circulated during the last elections in India were found to be fake.
The president said the morality protecting humanity and human rights like the women’s emancipation should be the ideals for society, instead of the vested interests.
President of the Institute of Regional Studies, the host organization, Ambassador Nadeem Riaz told the gathering that the two-day event was addressed by the speakers from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Hungary, and the United Nations.
He said the conference focused on four themes including regional conflicts, domestic challenges of regional countries, global challenges with consequences for the region, and prospects for regional cooperation and prosperity.
Highlighting the key takeaways of the moot, the IRS president said the speakers believed that Pakistan was a key player in Afghanistan as unstable Afghanistan would be problematic.
The speakers also asked India to opt course of dialogue for dispute resolution with Pakistan and that human security should not be mired by the conflicts.
The experts also cautioned that 400 million people were at risk of climate migration and 10 districts of Pakistan were likely to be the hotspot due to increasing temperature.
