PPC seminar "Prerequisites for peace in the 21st Century and the role of Pakistan"
· Source: DAWN January 1, 2000
RAPPROCHEMENT BETWEEN INDIA, PAKISTAN URGED
KARACHI, Jan 1: The Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) on Friday called upon
India and Pakistan to move away from their "maximalist" positions towards
some compromise that respected the wishes of the Kashimiri people as well.
This was spelt out in a resolution adopted at the PPC seminar on
"Prerequisites for peace in the 21st century and the role of Pakistan,"
held at the Karachi Press Club.
At the millennium's end, the resolution stated, it was completely clear
that five decades of confrontation between Pakistan and India had led to
nothing but misery, deprivation, and war.
Apart from draining the resources away from the needs of the people of the
two countries, the nuclear tests in April-May last year had put the
subcontinent under the shadow of a nuclear catastrophe, it said.
The PPC resolved that the Kargil episode was a disaster for Pakistan and it
had worsened the country's relations with India, as well as adversely
affecting Pakistan's credibility and support internationally.
It noted there was no solution to the Kashmir problem in sight and economic
collapse had been a constant possibility since the nuclear tests and
emphasized that "if Pakistan is to prosper, it will have to cut down
military expenditure sharply. It welcomed the recent 5 per cent reduction
in the defence budget, but said it was not sufficient.
It was of the view that Pakistan was at the mercy of international lending
institutions because of consistent diversion of resources away from the
real needs of our people towards heavy consumption by the country's elite
and towards military expenditure sharply.
Recognizing that nuclear war was not an abstract possibility but something
very real, the PPC called upon Pakistan and India to enter into
negotiations on nuclear issues, initially with the aim of creating
confidence-building measures to minimize the chances of their accidental
use, but with complete denuclearization as the ultimate goal. It called
upon Pakistan to sign the CTBT immediately.
The seminar was chaired by M.B.Naqvi, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Dr. Nayer, Hasan
Abidi and Mr. Karamat spoke in the seminar.
Pervez Hoodbhoy emphasized the need for focusing on improving economic
capability to be successful in the next century. He cited the example of
Indian economic gains and folly of dependence committed by Pakistan.
Hasan Abidi expressed concern over the failure of society to provide
opportunities of education to more than a million children of school going
age.
Dr. Nayar criticized the anti-India psyche in Pakistan which, he said, was
rooted in history. He said such an attitude had allowed fundamentalist to
make gains. He was also critical of the new policy on Kashmir announced by
General Pervez Musharraf.
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