KARACHI: “When I think of Gaza and what happened there, I think of international efforts. Would all this have happened if international efforts worked properly. I also think about the United Nations and wonder if it has become weak in front of Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel? But it was strong when imposing sanctions on Iraq, Iran, Libya and other small ‘Third World’ countries,” said Governor of Sindh Syed Nehal Hashmi.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day conference on ‘Living on the Threshold of Global Crises’ organised by the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) at a local hotel here on Saturday.

“What is war? What is genocide?” The Governor asked aloud. “Our neighbouring country also tried playing with us a similar game as what Netanyahu is playing these days, but grace to Allah, the brave soldiers of Pakistan, under the leadership of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and the Government of Pakistan, under the leadership of Shehbaz Sharif, who taught them a great lesson,” he added.

“True, without successful international effort or a successful international treaty or bindings, we won’t be able to live on this globe. But there is also a higher power. Today, we hear things such as the Indian Prime Minister planning to block Pakistan’s water. But air and water has been promised to us by God Almighty. No one can stop it from reaching us,” he concluded.

Two-day PIIA conference on global crises opens

Earlier, PIIA’s Honorary Chairperson Dr Masuma Hasan said that as the world shifts from unipolarity to an emerging multilateral order, in which middle powers are beginning to play an important role, global politics is marked by violence. “Big and small wars are taking place across the globe, wars in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, the Sahel, among others, leading to loss of life, displacement and immense human suffering, including the unprovoked attack by Israel and the United States on the Islamic Republic of Iran,” she said.

“Millions of people across the world have been displaced and are on the move because of these conflicts and crises. But the most outstanding, however, in brutality is the suffering inflicted by Israel on the people of Palestine. This is a civilisational war, aimed at eliminating the very identity of the Palestinian people, which has not only killed and maimed thousands in Gaza and the West Bank but has also bombed their material and spiritual assets, universities, schools, hospitals and healthcare facilities. It has perversely used starvation as a weapon of war and blocked access to humanitarian aid, food, sanitation and water. It will take many generations to remove the rubble and restore life and dignity to Gaza. We have witnessed a grave moral tragedy,” Dr Masuma added.

The first keynote address was delivered by Adviser to the Strategic Plans Division, Government of Pakistan, Ambassador Zamir Akram, who said that we are living on the precipice of an abyss because what we are confronting is a perfect storm. “We are confronting the collapse of the international system that evolved after World War II. Even though it was imperfect, it still maintained some modicum of security and stability around the world. But this order is now collapsing and it reminds me, as a student of history, of such a collapse that took place with the concept of Europe leading to World War I and of the league of nations that led to World War II. “The only difference is that this time around, unlike in the previous systems, which were based around, unlike in the previous systems, which were based on a balance of power, exercised through conventional forces and conventional means, we are today in a situation, after the use of nuclear weapons in Japan by the United States, living in a state of a balance of terror exercised by nuclear weapons. It is this balance of terror that led to a group of scientists, including Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, belonging to the University of Chicago, to set up what is now known as the Doomsday Clock.

“The Doomsday Clock was set up in 1947 and it measures how close the world is towards Armageddon. And the closer you get to midnight, the closer the world is to catastrophe. The measurement is done on the basis of three basic issues: the potential use of nuclear weapons, the advancements of technology and the changes in climate. The farthest the world has been from Armageddon or midnight on this clock was 17 minutes, which was in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed.

“Now as of January 2026, the clock has moved to 85 seconds to midnight. We were that close to disaster. Why is this the case? First, because of wars and crises that have taken place between countries that are nuclear weapon states or are potential possessors of nuclear weapons. We have seen for the last three odd years the war in Ukraine, which is not just a war between Russia and Ukraine but a war between Russia and the Nato alliance, both of which are nuclear weapon entities. The possibility of a nuclear exchange, even by accident, is just one miscalculation away. In 2025, we witnessed a short conflict between two nuclear powers, Pakistan and India. Fortunately, the war did not last for more than four days but the potential of a miscalculation always remained. Again now, we are seeing two nuclear powers, the US and Israel attack Iran and try to destroy its nuclear facilities, which apart from the potential release of radioactivity, can also push Iran towards acquiring its own nuclear weapons. So this is the situation that we are confronting in the world today,” he said.

The second keynote was delivered by the Founder and President of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a leading Chinese non-governmental think tank, Dr Wang Huiyao, via Zoom from Beijing. He said that big powers such as the US and China need to act together and look towards constructing instead of destructing. “China and the US have to find a way to co-exist peacefully as major powers need to take on major responsibility,” he pointed out.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026