Future destiny of Asia has to be decided by Asia’s leadership:Asian Parliamentary Assembly

Lahore: Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Chairman of the Organising Committee of Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) has said that future destiny of Asia has to be decided by Asia’s leadership representing the Asian people and the time has come for Asian hands to shape the future of Asia. He said this in a briefing to journalists from Lahore about the 7thplenary of Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA).

The briefing was held here on Saturday at a Hotel. It may be noted that the 7th Plenary of APA is going to be held in Lahore from 1st to 3rd December. Senator Mushahid Hussain said that the APA conference in Lahore will be unique in its nature and will be the biggest international Parliamentary Conference in the history of Lahore.

The Senator briefed the journalists about the history and formation of APA telling them that the vision for APA was presented in Islamabad ten years ago in November 2004 when the “Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace (AAPP) decided to transform itself into Asian Parliamentary Assembly. Now, again, Pakistan presented the vision to transform APA this a into an Asian Parliament,” he said. Pakistan is President of APA for a two year term, which is held by the Chairman of Senate, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari.

Mushahid Hussain emphasized the context of this meeting of APA and said that the ‘balance of economic as well as political power is shifting from west to east in this ‘Asian Century’.

He said that Pakistan is today playing a pivotal role of a bridge between South East Asia and West Asia. “Asia needs to discuss all the issues it faces, and this assembly will prove to be the right platform”, he said. He said Indian efforts to isolate Pakistan had failed, and today, Pakistan is being courted by China, Russia and the US concurrently.

Senator Mushahid Hussain said that Pakistan is playing a leadership role in APA, leading with ideas, issues and initiatives.

Mushahid Hussain said that nobody should think that people don’t want to come to Pakistan because distinguished delegates from 25 countries are arriving here for the three day conference.The journalists were briefed about the Assembly, its structure, committees, special women Asian parliamentary forum and its agendas. Senator Mushahid Hussain also said, to the pleasure of journalists, that APA will also look forward to have a media forum for cooperation and exchanges among Asian journalists, adding that a Hashtag #AsianParliament was created for the publicity on Social Media.

While answering questions about whether APA will be able to achieve its goals of regional cooperation, the chairman of the organizing committee said that SAARC was also put with same questions when it was established. He said the Asian Parliament is a doable vision within our lifetime, after all, the European Parliament and the Pan African Parliament are a reality, and in the Asian Security, the prosperity of Asia depends on peace, coexistence and cooperation.

Additional Secretary Senate Dr. Pervaiz Abbas, Joint Secretary Administration Senate Maj. (R) Husnain Haider, Joint Secretary IPR Senate Arshad Jan Pathan and Rao Liaquat, DG, PID, were also present in the briefing.