The leaders of major political parties, intellectuals and civil society activists called on India and Pakistan not to let terrorists make Indo-Pak dialogue a hostage to their nefarious designs and keep it going uninterruptible.
The SAFMA seminar on “Pak-India Thaw: Out-of-Box Solutions” was addressed by PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan, former foreign minister Khurshied Mehmood Kasuri, , senior journalist Ahmad Rashied, Prof Dr Mohammed Waseem of LUMS, ambassador Shahid Malik, general (r) Ghulam Mustaffa, Advocate Abdullah Malik, Secretary General SAFMA Imtiaz Alam. The participants passed following resolution: vehemently condemn all kinds of terrorism without any exception, including blatant terrorist attack on Bacha Khan University and Pathankot airbase; appreciate saner response by two governments and their resolve to fully cooperate in bringing the perpetrators of attack on Patankot to book at the earliest; support the zero-tolerance policy against terrorism of any variety by Pakistan government and security establishment; disappointed over postponement of foreign secretary level talks for setting a roadmap for comprehensive dialogue and demand meetings of national security advisors for early conclusion of joint investigations to nab and prosecute the preparatory of attack on Pathankot and foreign secretaries at the earliest; propose a joint security mechanism to share intelligence, pre-empt and bust terrorism and jointly fight the scourge of terrorism at the bilateral and regional levels; stress that dialogue must remain uninterruptible, productive and immediately be resumed from where it was left last time, for example on Kashmir between Musharraf and Manmohan governments, and conducive environment be created for peace, people to people contacts, trade and bilateral cooperation; appeal to replace paradigms of conflict and animosity with a sub-continental detente and interdependence for the greater benefit of our people and opt for out-of-box pragmatic solutions to all the disputes; request media to avoid building hysteria and blame game and promote peace and understanding.
In a separate resolution the participants demanded that Pakistan and Afghanistan must resolve not to let their territories be used by the terrorists without the distinction of good or bad. Both countries must evolve an institutional arrangement for joint management of border, coordinated operations against the terrorists, avoid blame game and work through four-nation forum for reconciliation and peace in Afghanistan.
