MAKKAH, Aug 16: President Asif Ali Zardari has urged the heads of Muslim states and governments to help Pakistan in its peace and reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan.

Addressing the 4th summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference here on Thursday, President Zardari said Pakistan had been badly affected by the unrest in Afghanistan and the fallout of the Mujahideen resistance to the former Soviet Union was still haunting it.

Reiterating Pakistan’s support for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process, he said peace and stability in Afghanistan were vital for the peace and stability in Pakistan. “Indeed, it is vital for peace and stability of the region and the world.”

The president said he remembered Afghanistan as a tourist attraction and now the world was seeing what war had done to that beautiful country. “We have been an ally of the world in the war against rival ideology and we have witnessed the introduction of heroine as a war weapon.”

He said that more than three million Afghan refugees were living in Pakistan and expressed the hope that they would soon return to rebuild their country. He said President Hamid Karzai and he himself were determined to make these efforts success.

Mr Zardari said: “Afghanistan has taught us that while thinkers and philosophers talk of changing the destinies of nations they must also have knowledge of the societies they wish to change.”

KASHMIR: The president said Muslim communities in different parts of the world continued to suffer denial of human rights, adding that the Kashmir issue continued to fester.

Reiterating Pakistan’s commitment to a just and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions, he expressed the hope that Pakistan’s engagement with India would be result-oriented and purposeful.

The president said that unresolved Palestinian question was a deep wound in the heart of the Middle East. “Pakistan fully supports the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state.”

He said that fast moving and far-reaching developments had been taking place in North Africa and the Middle East. “Over the past two years we have witnessed youth aspiring for change and democratic transformation.”

He said Egyptians and Tunisians had completed peaceful transformations in their countries and called for putting an immediate end to the bloodshed in Syria. “Pakistan desires that Syria forge its own destiny in accordance with the aspirations of its people.

We must respect Syria’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.” —APP