Former foreign minister and ambassador Abdul Sattar has said that ‘interests’ are permanent while ‘friendship’ is not so in the relations between states.
Delivering his concluding lecture to the students of National University of Modern Languages (NUML) on Tuesday, he said right of self-determination played a central role in the foreign policy of an independent and sovereign state, adding that Pakistan came into being in the exercise of right of self-determination by the people of the Subcontinent.
He said people had the right to determine their destiny and it was also the right of the Kashmiri people to determine their fate in the light of UN Security Council resolutions, adopted 63 years ago.
The former foreign minister said the second most important principle in the life of the nations was the Universal Declaration of Human rights, which was in consonance with the spirit of Islam.
“Every individual is born free and equal,” the former diplomat remarked.
He said the non-use of force and the settlement of disputes in accordance with justice and international law were the essence of foreign relations among states. NUML Rector Maj Gen (r) Masood Hasan, head of the International Relations Department, faculty members and students attended the ceremony. Sattar taught a full one semester course on ‘Foreign Policy’ of Pakistan to the students of IR Department. It is for the first time in the history of the country that a former foreign minister has taught a course in any university of the country.
