ISLAMABAD: National Security Adviser Lt Gen (r) Nasser Khan Janjua on Sunday said Pakistan is a great and peace loving country which always stood with the world for the cause of global stability and prosperity.
“We all need to invest in peace instead of war. We want and we are working with the world in a cooperative framework,” Janjua said while addressing an international conference of news agencies here.
The two-day conference entitled ‘Pakistan – Media Opportunities and Challenges’ is being organized by the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) to provide an opportunity to journalists to establish direct and hassle-free linkage to cope with emerging competitive environment for news agencies in the world.
He highlighted the different intriguing dimensions of Afghan conflict and said that no love stories are born out of the use of force. ‘Let’s collectively invest in peace and bring the closure to this perpetual conflict instead of wining it,” he added. The adviser sensitized the participants over the regional security environment and stressed that the US and the West should play a positive role in maintaining security of the region which over a period has become quite fragile. He highlighted the character and role of Pakistan in recent history and the sacrifices rendered by it in on-going war against terrorism. He said Pakistan has lost over 60,000 lives and billions of dollars in the war.
He gave the delegates a detailed presentation on regional security situation with a particular reference to focusing on how Pakistan, its people, armed forces, law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies performed brilliantly and resiliently after 1979 and 9/11. “Afghanistan is a story of pains. It is a story of injuries. It is a wound of the world and also of region, which should be healed as quickly as possible,” he told the gathering, which included delegates from around 15 countries.
“Every investment has been made to win Afghan war, but unfortunately we have not invested in winning peace,” he said, and termed Afghanistan a ‘wound of the world as well as the region’ which needs to be healed. He said innocent people in both Afghanistan and Pakistan were suffering since the Soviet occupation of Kabul in 1979. But now, he said, peace was the only way forward. “I know how to fight. We are a bold, brave, brilliant and beautiful nation, we also know how to fight. But we believe in peace.”
Janjua said post-9/11 Pakistan stood with international community and not with those who inflicted atrocious attack on the United States. On prevalent blame game, he said, “It is a strange moment in our history that the US and all others are accusing us of supporting the militants while the Taliban accuse us of supporting the US. They both are blaming us … who of them is right?”
The adviser said Pakistan’s location makes it a strategic asset in Central and South Asia, having the ability to connect the markets of Europe, Africa and other parts of Asia. Pakistan and Afghanistan share a lot of opportunities and have common economic future with a potential to connect to the markets of Europe, Africa and rest of Asia, he said.
Janjua said unfortunately, children of Afghanistan have seen nothing but war since 1979, whereas Pakistan, after Afghanistan, is the most affected country hit by instability and insurgencies. He said the people of Pakistan want to see Afghanistan a peaceful, prosperous and stable country.
The adviser said China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is only half of the China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) dream, with Afghanistan being the other half as it will connect whole Central Asia and Europe. He said Pakistan is the only country that can multiply the regional economies. He said Pakistan believed that building of economic corridor was conducive to promoting connectivity and shared prosperity of the entire region, and added that Pakistan believed in cooperative relations with all its neighbours on the basis of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. “Pakistan, its people, armed forces and other LEAs have successfully fought insurgencies and militancy, and good news is that terrorism is decreased while peace is prevailing in the country,” he added.
The adviser also spoke high about holding of the conference, saying “It is a good endeavour which will help representatives of foreign news agencies to share different innovative ideas in media related domains and to portray true and positive picture of Pakistan, its people, economic potential and country’s contributions in the war against terror.”
Published in Daily Times, May 14th 2018.
