ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: In our mad lust for accumulating power and wealth, we are killing each other both at individual and national level without any regard for our future generations, Federal Minister for Environment Tahir Iqbal said here on Wednesday.

He was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of a three-day 7th Sustainable Development Conference organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). "Troubled Times: Sustainable Development and Governance in the Age of Extremes" was theme of the conference.

The conference has brought together theorists, researchers, thinkers, writers, activists, policy-makers and academicians from across the region and the world to debate the second phase of globalization. "We have reached a critical stage where we (countries) have to think collectively for sustainable development of the world instead of following individual agenda to put breaks to the relentless use of natural sources.

"Air and water pollution is a phenomenon that does not know geographical boundaries between the countries, and pollutants produced by one country may affect her neighbour," the minister said. The prediction by a number of environmentalists that future wars between countries would be fought on water resources should be a matter of concern for everyone present here that how such probabilities could be stopped before happening, the minister said.

"South Asia is a fragile piece of land where poor practices and policies have had environmental consequences. As we plan for the future, we must all consider the impact of our environmental activities on this continent," Mr Iqbal said.

He also suggested the participants of the conference that instead of mere discussing issues, they came out with certain practicalities to be implemented by the governments. The minister also launched a book titled "Sustainable Development: Bridging the Research/Policy Gaps in Southern Contexts" on the occasion and acknowledged the SDPI's outstanding record of academic and scientific leadership in the area of sustainable development.

The book, he said, was proof of SDPI's concern for translating the specialized multi and trans-disciplinary research into effective policy measures in the global south. He assured that sustainable development was at the heart of Dr Ashis Nandy from the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), India, in his keynote address questioned the prevailing nation state system in South Asia.

"South Asia is the only region in the world where most states define themselves not by what they are but by what they are not. The region can be called a collection of very reluctant states," Dr Nandy said. Giving the example of Saarc, he said, when political leaders talked of Saarc, they had in mind the format of a global nation state system, and not the format of the cultural system within which they had survived for centuries.

"They (leaders) fear that in a people's Saarc, South Asia may be moving towards where people would be having free exchange of news, books, information, ideas, literature, art, films and, above all, movement at will of free thinking human beings."

Dr Saba Gul Khattak, Executive Director, SDPI, welcomed the community of like-minded thinkers, activists, intellectuals and policy-makers from across the world. The chair of SDPI board of governors and ex-WAPDA chairman, Shamsul Mulk gave an overview of SDPI's past and highlighted some of its current works and activities.