KARACHI, June 2: Former Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yaqub Khan has emphasized the significance of time as a factor in ‘negotiations’ and regretted that time was generally not allowed to play its role in interactions. Although he did not elaborate, the words of wisdom and reference to different concepts of time in different cultures, and the factors of time in China’s approach on Hong Kong, border issue with India, and the issue of Taiwan, was a clear indication of what he was putting across at a time when Pakistan and India were logged in a composite dialogue for resolving their contentious issues, including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

Sahabzada Yaqub was speaking at the launching of a book titled Strategy, diplomacy, humanity, life and work of Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, compiled and edited by Anwar Dil, at the Agha Khan University here on Wednesday.

He also quoted from the verses of the Holy Quran to emphasize the significance and connotation of time.

Paying tribute to the remarkable linguist, strategist and diplomatist, the chairman of the Agha Khan University Board, ambassador Saidullah Khan Dehlavi recalled Sahabzada Yaqub Khan’s reflections made last year at an international conference in which he had said: “Unless we are at peace within ourselves, unless we can bring balance, harmony, and symmetry to appease this inner turmoil, it would be difficult to approach with wisdom and temperance the external conflicts we want to resolve. Neither justice nor peace can flow from individuals who have not succeeded in bringing under a degree of control the passions that are at war within themselves.”

Speakers paid tributes to his role in articulating Pakistan’s foreign policy in the most trying moments of the Afghan crisis and his pioneering role in the formation of the Agha Khan University.

AKU President Shams Kassim Lakha spoke on his experience of working with the Sahabzada.

Others who spoke were Dr Anwar Dil, Dr Shariful Mujahid and Abdul Kader Jaffer.