{"id":2576,"date":"2013-01-09T12:25:11","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T06:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistanhc.lk\/?p=2576"},"modified":"2020-01-09T00:18:22","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T18:48:22","slug":"pakistan-urges-saarc-leadership-to-dismantle-political-barriers-for-economic-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/?p=2576","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan urges SAARC leadership to dismantle political barriers for economic gains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
Pakistan urges SAARC leadership to dismantle political barriers for economic gains<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has urged political\u00a0leadership of South Asia to show courage, flexibility and statesmanship to dismantle\u00a0political barriers and resolve inter-state conflicts for laying the foundations\u00a0of a regional economic take off.\u00a0There is immense scope of collaboration in the spheres of culture, sports,\u00a0tourism, education, research, human resource development, poverty alleviation and\u00a0environment among the SAARC member countries, he said while addressing the annual\u00a0conference of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) at the Governor House\u00a0here Tuesday.<\/div>\n
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The Prime Minister stressed for collective wisdom to evolve a South Asian\u00a0vision and fraternity, adding that SAARC members must develop home-grown solutions to overcome poverty, unemployment and economic disparity.<\/div>\n
Underlining the need for close bilateral ties, he said SAARC members must\u00a0allow greater interaction among the policy-makers, parliamentarians, businessmen,\u00a0media practitioners, professionals and the leaders of civil society.<\/div>\n
Stressing the need to overcome information deficit among the member\u00a0countries, he said all restrictions on access to free flow of information should\u00a0be removed and media persons and products be allowed for free movement across the\u00a0frontiers.<\/div>\n
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Diversity among the member countries needs to be employed to accelerate the\u00a0process of development through greater bilateral connectivity, he said.
\nThe Prime Minister regretted the fact that the region lags behind the world\u00a0despite immense natural and human resources, adding that South Asia is still\u00a0deprived of basic health and educational facilities.<\/div>\n
\nThe Prime Minister said South Asia could also do well by learning from the\u00a0global best practices and apply them to regional context for the welfare of its\u00a0people – a common cause for all member countries.<\/div>\n
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Stressing the need for collective effort for betterment of the region, he\u00a0said history will not forgive us if member countries continue to be bogged down\u00a0by narrow considerations, adding that 1.2 billion People of South Asia expect\u00a0their leaders to exercise vision, statesmanship and think out of box to put SAARC\u00a0in the league of other groupings.<\/p><\/div>\n

\nNothing can be achieved if we do not open our minds to each other and allow\u00a0connectivity to flourish, Raja stressed.<\/div>\n
The Prime Minister said Pakistan attaches great importance to SAARC and is\u00a0committed to the principles and objectives of the SAARC Charter, stressing that\u00a0Pakistan has played a proactive role to make SAARC a model of regional cooperation, based on the principles of sovereign equality.<\/div>\n
\nAbout bilateral trade ties, Raja said Pakistan supports liberalization of\u00a0intra-SAARC trade and looks forward to increasing our bilateral and multilateral\u00a0trade with member countries of the SAARC region.<\/div>\n
\nHe said cross-border trade could help overcome poverty and strengthen\u00a0economies.\u00a0SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme has been instrumental in promoting people to\u00a0people contact including businessmen and media persons, he added.<\/div>\n
\nUrging the need for reconciliation, the PM said PPP-led coalition\u00a0government practiced the policy of reconciliation from its inception, adding that\u00a0reconciliation is the vision of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.<\/div>\n
\nRaja said conflict over disputes must give way to reconciliation,\u00a0connectivity, openness and regional cooperation, adding that collective\u00a0well-being of people of South Asia cannot be left at the mercy of any one\u00a0country.We need to resolve all political and economic issues with an open mind\u00a0and sincerity of purpose, he added.<\/div>\n
\nRaja urged SAARC to step up efforts for regional energy security through\u00a0sharing of indigenous sources and technology, adding that SAARC needs to develop\u00a0a comprehensive and holistic regional strategy.<\/div>\n
\nHe stressed the need to evolve sustainable mechanisms to translate\u00a0objectives of SAARC into reality as well as turn SAARC into a formidable regional\u00a0body which could rub shoulders with other similar regional bodies.<\/div>\n
\nThe Prime Minister called upon the media men play their role in educating\u00a0people on the socio-economic advantages of cooperation among the member states\u00a0and guide government for a conducive environment which could put all the countries on the path of development.<\/div>\n
\nPrime Minister also acknowledged the role of SAFMA\u00a0 in promoting peace and\u00a0regional cooperation in the South Asia.\u00a0Punjab Governor Makhdum Syed Ahmad Mahmud, Federal Minister for Information\u00a0and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira, Federal Minister Syed Khurshid Shah, SAFMA\u00a0President (Pakistan Chapter), Nustrat Javed, SAFMA Secretary, Imtiaz Alam,\u00a0delegates from SAARC countries, and a large number of media men were present\u00a0during the ceremony.<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pakistan urges SAARC leadership to dismantle political barriers for economic gains Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has urged political\u00a0leadership of South Asia to show courage, flexibility and statesmanship to dismantle\u00a0political barriers and resolve inter-state conflicts for laying the foundations\u00a0of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,63],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2576"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8407,"href":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576\/revisions\/8407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pakistanhc.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}