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| August 23, 2005 | Tuesday | Rajab 17, 1426 |
Speaker for war against poverty
ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain has called upon Asian states to wage a war against poverty, drug abuse, extremism and resolve regional conflicts.
“The fear of domination by one country over another should be banished from Asia which is plagued with regional conflicts that do not allow the continent to achieve peace and prosperity”, stated the speaker while addressing the Executive Council meeting of the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace at a hotel here on Monday.
He said the regional conflicts between the Asian nations were one of the biggest obstacles in the way of achieving peace and prosperity in the region.
“Poverty was the root cause of all social evils and a war against it must be given top priority.”
He stressed upon the members to join hands to eliminate this evil from the AAPP member countries.
The meeting was attended by speakers, deputy speakers and vice-chairmen from Cambodia, Kiribati, Nepal, Thailand, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Cyprus, Bahrain, Korea, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mongolia, Palestine, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Yemen and Iran.
Chaudhry Amir Hussain was elected the president of the association. The next meeting of the association will be held in Thailand next year. The proposed theme of the Thailand moot would be “Peace, Brotherhood and Solidarity”, to be discussed from political, socio-economic, and security points of view.
APP adds: Speaker Hussain said the forum must be used for resolving disputes between the countries of the region.
The speaker supported the UN Millennium Development Goals programme and hoped that the Asian Anti-Poverty Fund of the AAPP would play its role, in collaboration with the UN, to eliminate poverty from Asia.
He said that debt burden was the major hurdle in the way of rapid progress and poverty reduction in the developing countries and called for converting large scale debt into equity participation.
“We also need to focus on the problems of drug abuse, human trafficking, terrorism and extremism. We all bear responsibility to get Asia free from these scourges.”
Speakers and deputy speakers of 21 countries addressed the meeting.
They urged for more cooperation and interaction for resolving social and economic problems confronting the Asian countries.
They also stressed to streamline laws to effectively curb the menace of drugs and human trafficking and protection of human rights in the AAPP countries.
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