KARACHI: Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed on Wednesday said what happened after August 5th that had changed the some dynamics of the region as India illegally annexed Kashmir into its union territory when Pakistan and China on the other hand had established a special working group to focus on international cooperation to ensure peace in the region.
Speaking as a chief guest in a session of English Speaking Union at a local hotel, he said that insurgency in Kashmir was probably one of the largest and Kashmiri people were braving it.
Annexation of Kashmir, he said was most shocking development for not only Pakistan but also the entire region since 1971 because India tried to alter the geography of the region.
Talking about Pakistan's role in Afghan peace process Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed said that Pakistan faced consequences of Afghan conflict.
Apart from people of Afghanistan, Pakistan had suffered the most from the conflict however there had been a healthy change in Pakistan's policy as the governments reviewed mistakes made in the past.
Now independent and sovereign Afghanistan was priority of Pakistan.
He said that Pakistan, China, US and even Russia along with the government of Afghanistan were working together on Afghan peace process.
Mushahid Hussain recalled that Allama Iqbal had mentioned in 1922 if there would be a conflict in Afghanistan there would be a conflict in the region if there would be peace in Afghan there would be peace in the region.
He shared stats from a study conducted by Brown University in November 2018, which according to him, claimed that US had spent 5.9 trillion dollars in war on terror after 9/11.
In Afghanistan alone it was almost a trillion dollars with 25000 causalities.
The Senator said that US President Donald Trump's desire for peace was driven by electoral politics of the US because US was having its presidential elections.
Trump intended to achieve big diplomatic triumph he tried it in Korea and Middle East but did not succeed.
The US President realized importance of Afghan peace and also realized that the road to White House went through Islamabad because he knew that Pakistan was trying its best for restoration of peace in Afghanistan.
Donald Trump now considered Pakistan as a part of solution to the conflict.
Mushahid Hussain talking about China said that till recently China was a regional power it was perhaps the one country which was emerging to compete with the US in different areas and it was a very important transformation to the global politics.
He said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was a central piece in China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched in 2013 by its President Xi Jing Pin.
The BRI was the single most important development and diplomatic initiative of the 21st century because its scale, size and speed were amazing as it brought in almost 100 countries of Asia, Africa, Middle-East and Europe through connectivity to infrastructure.
The Senator went on to say that CPEC was launched in Pakistan about 5 years ago and seventy thousand Pakistanis got employed in its different projects while 28,000 Pakistani students were studying in China. Pakistan was entering into second phase of CPEC with special focus on socio-economic development.
On the occasion English Speaking Union Acting President Kaleem Farooqi, members and officials from different consulate generals were also present.
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