KARACHI, Dec 14: Amid heightened tension between Pakistan and India following the Mumbai terrorist attacks, speakers at the inaugural session of the first Saarc Simulation Exercise urged the leadership of the organisation on Sunday to come forward and play its role in defusing the tension and prevent a showdown between the two nuclear armed neighbours.

They also stressed the need for viable regional cooperation among the countries of South Asia to ensure peace, stability, human development, and human security to more than one billion people of the region.

The three-day exercise has been organised by the Department of International Relations, University of Karachi, in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Islamabad.

The speakers were of the view that ongoing confrontation between Pakistan and India after the Mumbai terrorist attacks is a major threat to the region and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) must come forward to de-escalate the conflict and defuse tension.

In the inaugural session speakers dwelt on the purposes and objectives of the simulation exercise and hoped that it would go a long way in developing substantial interest and expertise among the participants for a better understanding of critical issues faced by the Saarc member countries.

Sixty-four students in teams from all over the country are participating in the exercise at Karachi University to discuss eight themes ranging from Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism, Common Human Rights Commission, Free Trade Agreement/Safta, Common Environment Programme, Common Parliament, Saarc Energy Cooperation, Common Saarc Policy and Saarc Higher Education Cooperation.

In the simulation exercise each team is led by its respective ‘minister’.

Students from eight different academic disciplines of International Relations, Political Science and Defence Studies of Pakistan have been selected to represent eight different member countries of Saarc.

Each department has chosen, trained and prepared a team of eight students, who will strive for their countries’ interest in a (virtual) negotiation. Each student will act as a minister of the Saarc country his/her department is representing.

Professor (Dr) Moonis Ahmar, chairman of the department of International Relations, Mr Richard Asbeck, resident representative of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Islamabad, Prof (Dr) M. Shamsuddin, dean Faculty of Arts, and Dr Naeem Ahmed, chief coordinator of the simulation exercise, addressed the inaugural session.

Dr Shamsuddin inaugurated the three-day event in the absence of Vice-Chancellor of the Karachi University, Prof (Dr) Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, who is abroad.

The main objective of the simulation exercise is to learn about policies of Saarc member states.

Speakers said that the simulation exercise would encourage independent and critical thinking in students and would help them in learning crucial social and professional skills.

Working sessions of the exercise will be held at the Arts Auditorium of the university on Monday and Tuesday (Dec 15-16).

The best two individual winners, who would win the most points during the excise, will be invited to Germany to participate in the International Summer School in Eichstatt.