ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has said that Pakistan is making all-out efforts to bring all parliaments on one platform to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and discrimination faced by the world.

Speaking at a reception held in honour of conveners of parliamentary friendship groups and diplomatic community at the Parliament House on Thursday, he said the importance of parliamentary diplomacy in the present globalised world was an undeniable fact as parliaments were representative voice of the people.

The speaker said he had formulated 93 parliamentary friendship groups to make parliamentary diplomacy proactive and to enhance cooperation in trade and exchange of human capital as well as intellectual sharing.

He said Pakistan was committed to peace and stability in the region as it was manifestly expressed by the government during recent escalation with India.

Mr Qaiser said India was bringing chaos and instability to the region by resorting to aggression in held Kashmir and on the Line of Control.

He said that each step of the Pakistan government showed its resolve for peace, while India was still prone to aggression and warmongering.

He said parliament had adopted the National Action Plan to counter the threat of terrorism and extremism. Pakistan needed support of the international community to strengthen peace and cooperation in the world, he added.

The speaker said that without resolving the Kashmir issue it would not be possible to maintain peace in the region.

He said that through the Parliamentary Friendship Group, the Lok Sabha speaker had been asked to work for peaceful resolution of the issues.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan had made sincere efforts for peace in the region and in his first address to the nation he invited India to start dialogue to resolve all contentious issues between the two countries.

The speaker said Pakistan’s armed forces were fully prepared to defeat any adventure.

However, he said, the national leadership had shown restraint. The recent joint session of parliament had also adopted a unanimous resolution which reflected unity of the nation, he said.

In his address on the occasion, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the parliamentary friendship groups provided a perfect platform to parliamentarians to enhance inter-parliamentary diplomacy to resolve all issues faced by the world.

A large number of conveners of parliamentary friendship groups, parliamentarians and diplomats attended the reception.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2019