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ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi has urged the member countries of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) to develop a firm partnership to address the issues faced by them.
While addressing the inaugural session of the General Conference of the Parliamentary Assembly of ECO in Islamabad today the president said the organization should take steps to develop a firm partnership.
Govt institutions should provide technical help to ECP in holding free & fair elections. Min of Science & Tech will help with EVMs & Min of IT with Overseas Pakistanis voting. Entire exercise has to be transparent, led by ECP & should ensure a far better process than ever before. https://t.co/ghuHPAFbMw
— Dr. Arif Alvi (@ArifAlvi) June 1, 2021
The ECO countries should further improve their relations through trade, tourism and economic linkages, the President said. He pointed out that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is an excellent example of cooperation that will link the Central Asian States with the seas.
It merits mention that the General Conference, which is underway, will discuss an array of topics revolving around its theme “Promoting Parliamentary Partnership for Regional Integration.”
Speakers and Parliamentarians from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan are attending the event. The conference will also have meetings of women parliamentarians, breakout sessions and panel discussions for two days.
Dr Alvi said the ECO region, with its eight million square kilometer landmass and 500 million people, comprised six percent of the world population and had the potential to become economic power through institutionalized trade policy reforms.
In today’s world, he said, where morality was becoming irrelevant next to the oppressor’s own whims and wishes, strong leadership and approach promoting the ethos of humanity was direly needed.
He mentioned the West’s double standards and hypocrisy in the name of “freedom of expression” where the incidents of blasphemy of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) were on rising compared with the intolerance against a slight discussion on the Holocaust.
He also pointed that labeling the freedom movement of Palestinians and Kashmiris as terrorism by Israel and India was another approach of seeing them through the prism of prejudice. The president, however, categorically said that Pakistan’s stance on Israel’s violations of human rights was “not anti-Semitic, but anti-Zionist”.
