ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani and Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq jointly inaugurated the moot on creation of Asian Parliament, APA body on political affairs here on Tuesday.
Addressing the conference, Speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq called upon the Asian countries to join hands and work together for achieving the desired goals for regional peace, development and prosperity.
Over 70 delegates from twenty-three Asian countries, including members of parliament and speakers, are participating in the meeting.
Indian parliamentarians including Shashi Tharoor, Meenakshi Lekhi and Swapan Dasgupta are also present.
Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said APA member states should intervene for peaceful solution of all outstanding disputes in accordance with UN resolution and as per aspirations of the people.
We must work together for confronting shared challenges of terrorism, extremism, poverty and climate change, he added.
On the occasion, Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani said the Asian Parliaments will have to draw up a collective course of action to address the challenges of poverty hunger, illiteracy and terrorism. He said people of Asia have rights on the resources of the region and if they did not come up to the expectations of the people, history would not forgive them.
Senate Chairman the failure of Asian Parliaments in addressing issues, would be their collective failure
Mian Raza Rabbani said there could be confrontation of interest between the countries but they will have to work collectively to bring changes in the lives of the people. Otherwise, he said, the people of Asian countries would continue to be exploited by the developed countries.
He expressed the confidence that the special committee on creation of Asian Parliament would make a positive beginning towards the cherished objective.
He said it would be unrealistic to expect a blueprint of the Asian Parliament at the conclusion of the session but we should move towards narrowing our differences.
