LAHORE Oct 03 ( INP) SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) Senior Vice President Iftikhar Ali Malik Wednesday emphasized the urgent need that SAARC member states must resolve their all kinds of issues on this regional platform instead of seeking arbitration from global super powers.

In a statement, Iftikhar Malik said economy has to be the most important agenda for the SAARC nations despite political challenges and compulsions.

He the SAARC suffered badly because of Indian persistent and bigoted stance towards Pakistan and Indian foreign Minister Sushma Sawaraj’s withdrawal from SAARC’s Council of Ministers held on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly is nothing more than an attempt to derail the sustained peace process.

He said Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is right when he accused India of being an obstacle in promoting regional cooperation through SAARC.

He said the Indian government should realize now that increased cooperation, contacts and exchanges among the countries of the region will contribute to the promotion of friendship and understanding among their peoples. SAARC was established to promote that cooperation “within an institution framework”.

He said it would be unwise to permanently rule out these issues from SAARC and experience of other regional groupings like the EEC and Asean shows that progress was possible only after the political issues had been meaningfully addressed. There is no reason why SAARC should lag behind.

“The member states of SAARC should be able to use this platform to collectively help narrow down the political turmoil among members. I am quite aware that our charter precludes discussion of contentious political disputes in our meetings,” he added.

Iftikhar Malik further suggested that economic agenda has to be the foremost important agenda for the political parties in the region. Unfortunately in our region it is not the top priority, somehow due to all ours thought process. "Thrusting the economic agenda foremost should be all ours guiding force for our relationships. Our political agendas are never ending. We really need to come out of this and see how economic agendas can be prioritised, he added.

Highlighting the role of youths for bringing all the member states close to each other, he said we have the youngest people in the world. The Saarc region will continue to grow for another 20-25 years so we have to make sure that our youth are healthy people, people who are qualified to assume job not only for our countries but also for our region.

Stressing on the challenges related to education in the region, he said the private sector can play a key role in creating jobs in the region, skilling the educated to help them get jobs as well as healthcare, as only if the youth are healthy they can add value to the economy.

[timed-content-server show="10/04/2018 01:00 Asia/Karachi"]Besides, tourism is also another important area that the SAARC nations can work together with, he said.He further said this region is rich in natural resources but nearly 40 per cent of our population are living below poverty line. We as a private sector of Pakistan have been very vocal and told our government very clearly that the closing of borders every other month is not acceptable.“We only have about 5 per cent of the global trade happening in SAARC region, but population wise we are very big. It means there is some problem. Connectivity, integration and infrastructure are the issues of hindrance for growth," he concluded.[/timed-content-server]

[timed-content-server show="10/04/2018 01:00 Asia/Karachi"]He further said this region is rich in natural resources but nearly 40 per cent of our population are living below poverty line. We as a private sector of Pakistan have been very vocal and told our government very clearly that the closing of borders every other month is not acceptable.[/timed-content-server]

[timed-content-server show="10/04/2018 01:00 Asia/Karachi"]“We only have about 5 per cent of the global trade happening in SAARC region, but population wise we are very big. It means there is some problem. Connectivity, integration and infrastructure are the issues of hindrance for growth," he concluded.[/timed-content-server]

INP/LK