LAHORE: Former British cabinet member and a member of the House of Lords Baroness Sayeeda Warsi says the war against terrorism was not ours in the past but it has now become our war as Pakistan’s sacrifices in the war are far greater than any other country’s.

She said this at a gathering of students and teachers at Punjab University’s Faisal Auditorium on Monday.

Ms Warsi said Pakistan was facing the consequences of some decisions taken a few years ago. She said the Kashmir issue was resolvable through dialogue and Pakistan’s foreign policy should be in accordance with public interest. She said the rulers while devising policies should remember their public mandate. She urged Pakistani politicians to try to become a leader instead of seeking leadership positions.

Ms Warsi said she would not take part in Pakistani politics as there was a lot of work to do for the welfare of Pakistanis in Britain. She said the people, who wanted to bring about a change in society must first change their own life. Stating that though Pakistan came into existence in the name of Islam, the lesson of equality and respect for women was unfortunately missing from the Pakistani society.

She said that there was no system that could eliminate the grievances of victims. She said she did politics of principles in the UK and that’s why she resigned from the ministry in a protest at Israel’s ruthless attack on Gaza strip in 2014 as no mother could see children being killed.

“I informed the British prime minister that Israel was committing serious violations of human rights and if we believe in international justice, we must not adopt double standard on the issue,” she said.

She said the 9/11 incident had changed her life and she entered into politics. “Even in the British society, I faced challenges for being a woman but at last I got success,” she said.

She advised the students to do whatever they wanted to but with principles, honesty, bravery and commitment, adding the Pakistani youth was facing a lot of challenges but it had the capacity to cope with them.

Meanwhile, Warsi met Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and discussed measures for solution to problems of overseas Pakistanis.

The chief minister lauded the efforts of Saeeda Warsi for strengthening relations between Pakistan and Britain. He hoped the Overseas Pakistanis Commission would play an important role in resolving problems of overseas Pakistanis.

He said that Punjab government had given legal status to Overseas Pakistanis Commission and it would take effective measures to redress the grievances of Pakistanis living in other countries.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2015

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