PESHAWAR, April 22: Scholars at a conference on Tuesday said that Pakistan should refrain from adventurism and interference in  Afghanistan’s internal affairs and instead coordinate with its traditional allies to cope with emerging crises in the region.

The conference, entitled “Pakistan’s foreign policy: regional and international dimensions” has been arranged at the Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Museum, University of Peshawar, by the international relations department in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Germany.

Peshawar University Vice-Chancellor Syed Zulfiqar Hussain Gillani inaugurated the two-day international conference, being attended  by academicians, foreign policy experts and diplomats.

The experts observed that Islamabad should operate in a coalition, remove shortcomings of its foreign policy and establish cordial relations with the neighbouring countries.

Dr Tahir Amin of the department of international relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, said the Afghan policy had been in disarray after the fall of the Taliban regime and the invasion of the country.

He said Islamabad had been caught in conflicting pulls of Western liberal, resurgent Hindu and Islamic world orders leading to security dilemmas.

Dr Amin said the Western world order, led by the United States wanted Pakistan to help consolidate its control on Afghanistan, maintain a status quo in Kashmir and roll back its nuclear programme.

The US had put the country under a serious strain by focusing on the tribal areas in search of an elusive enemy, he said.

He cautioned that a threat from the Islamic world order should not be underestimated as the elite, which had attached itself too closely with the US agenda, had increased the chances of a conflict between the state and the society. He stressed restoration of democracy in a true sense.

He said the army was fully complying US directives and the civil and military elites had no concern with national security.

He said the western alliance wanted that Islamabad should detach itself from terrorism, make Pakistan a model of moderate Islamic state and abandon advocacy of the Kashmir issue.

The counsellor at the Russian embassy in Islamabad, Dr Artem Rudnitsky, stressed greater cooperation between Islamabad and Moscow to counter terrorism. He said there were many obstacles harming relations between the two countries, although the post-Sept 11 crises had put a positive impact  on bilateral relations.

He said the Russian Federation was in the best position to bring Islamabad and Delhi to the negotiating table.

Farzin Nia from Iran said relations between Islamabad and Tehran witnessed many ups and downs after the emergence of the Taliban regime and sectarianism in Pakistan, particularly the killing of Iranian diplomats.

She pointed out the after the fall of Taliban the political and economic relations had improved.

Former army chief Mirza Aslam Beg said there was no threat of nuclear war between Pakistan and India because of the effectiveness of nuclear deterrence, which also minimized the threat of a conventional war.

Former foreign secretary Najmuddin A. Sheikh that until the Indian national elections in 2004, no substantive talks would be held between the countries.