ISLAMABAD, April 16: Speakers at a seminar here on Monday called for a new social contract for South Asia and urged the two South Asian nuclear armed rivals to overcome their differences.

The seminar, “New South Asia and new realities” was organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

The speakers urged the South Asian governments, particularly India and Pakistan, to resolve their differences for the sake of their peoples.

They underlined the need for joint efforts for a new South Asia, free from hunger, poverty, conflicts, inequalities and despair and to reject hegemony and oppression in the name of religion, ethnicity, caste and culture.

Former foreign secretary Akram Zaki lamented that since independence, the two major countries of the region had not been able to overcome their differences which eventually led them to a critical situation where only the masses remained the net looser.

It is high time the South Asian governments got together and fought these challenges for the sake of their peoples, because no country could take on the challenges alone in today’s world, he added.

He also criticised the South Asian countries for resorting to unnecessary arms race instead of spending their resources on human development and social and economic justice.

Central leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) Haji Mohammad Adeel called upon the South Asian governments to take effective measures to make the region a free zone where people enjoyed free movement across the borders without any passport or visa. He also suggested substantive cut in defence expenditures, single currency for all South Asian countries and formation of a bicameral parliament to help the region progress collectively.—Our Reporter