F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: The heads of the parliaments from six regional countries at the First Speakers’ Conference on Sunday called for establishing a joint mechanism to cope with the challenges of terrorism and security besides promoting the inter-region connectivity.
Hosted by the National Assembly of Pakistan, the three-day conference commenced here with an objective to focus the parliamentary cooperation for peace, connectivity and prosperity in the region. The theme of conference is “the challenges of terrorism and inter-regional connectivity”.
Besides, Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq, Spea-ker of the Wolisi Jirga of Afg-hanistan Abdul Rauf Ibrahe-emi, Speaker of the Shoora-e-Islami of Iran Dr. Ali Larejani, Chairman of the State Duma of Federal Assembly of Russia Volodin Vyacheslav Viktoro-vich, Spe-aker of Grand Tur-kish Asse-mbly Ismail Kehrm-an and Vi-ce Chairman of the National People’s Congress of China Zhang Ping, addressed the inaugural session of the international event.
They also appreciated Spe-aker National Assembly Sar-dar Ayaz Sadiq for convening the conference to discuss the important issue, presently confronting the whole world.
Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress China Zhang Ping said ” no country alone can address the challenges, being faced by the mankind and therefore, we will have to work together to tackle them.”
He said the six countries of the region have gathered here to discuss the important challenges of the humanity. “We should commit to secure peace and stability through collective efforts”. He said that China is working with the international community to combat terroris-m and stressed the need for jo-int efforts to defeat this menace.
“China wants peaceful settlement of issues confronting the international community” he added. He said that China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) project to connect the whole world will be beneficial for all.
Speaker of Islamic Consu-ltative Assembly of Iran Dr. Ali Ardeshir Larijani said Isl-am is the religion of peace and those, misusing the name of religion for terrorist activities are doing no service to Islam. He said occupation of ot-her countries, poverty and un-der-development are some of the causes of extremism and terrorism and these must be addr-essed to overcome the problem. “We have to see the root-causes of the terrorism while fighting with it” he added.
President of the Wolesi Jirga of Afghanistan Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi said “addressing the challenge of terrorism should be our priority as our progress, peace and prosperity are deeply linked to it.” He said the problem is assuming new dimensions as terrorist groups have modern weapons and ammunition. The terrorists are targeting t-he civilians, women and children in the name of religion.
He said, “Islam does not allow anyone to kill people as it is against the humanity, killing one people means killing of whole humanity.” Afghanistan is fighting against terrorism as a front line state, he added. He said “without joint efforts fight against terrorism cannot be won”
Chairman of the State Du-ma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav V. Volodin said “we can defeat terrorism through collective efforts.” He called for choking funding for terrorism and strengthening legislative measures in this regard. “We can only effectively fight the against terrorism jointly,” he added.
Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Ismail Kahraman said the conference is going to yield positive results and therefore, it needs to be made permanent feature. He said Turkey has also remained a victim of terrorism. He said that for last many years, Turkey has been facing terrorism. He also endorsed the idea of Ayaz Sadiq of establishing a permanent secretariat of the speakers’ conference.
