A close-up of HoA Conference

On the face of it, the experience was not all that pleasant for Pakistan as the host, India and the main protagonist of the Heart of Asia (HoA) Conference, Afghanistan used the multilateral meet in Amritsar to gang up against Pakistan in order to vent their respective self-serving anti-Islamabad tirade. But for Pakistan the price was not high enough to cancel the fact that by attending the meet it won the much needed goodwill of the rest of the participants. Indeed, Pakistan did well to keep its eyes on the ball — the real purpose of the multilateral meet, rather than be distracted by its bilateral problems with its two immediate neighbours. The HoA initiative was launched in 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey for encouraging economic and security cooperation between Afghanistan and its neighbours for dealing with the common problems of terrorism, extremism and poverty. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates are part of the HoA initiative. Six key areas in which the 14 countries have been pursuing confidence-building measures since the 2013 Almaty meeting are disaster management, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, trade and investment, regional infrastructure, and education.The process is supported by 17 other, predominantly Western, countries, and 12 international organisations which send senior representatives to the HoA Conferences.



The Amritsar Declaration issued on December 4, contains as many as 33 points and bears the signature of Pakistan along with the other members. Though the Indian media played up the mention of terrorism in the Declaration to mean putting Pakistan in the dock, a closer reading of the relevant point makes it very clear that it favours Pakistan, one of the world’s major victims of terrorism rather than castigates it.

The relevant point reads: We remain concerned by the high level of violence caused by the Taliban, terrorist groups including ISIL / DAISH and its affiliates, the Haqqani Network, Al Qaida, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, East Turkistan Islamic Movement, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, TTP, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Jundullah and other foreign terrorist fighters. Acknowledging the support that terrorism derives in our region, we demand an immediate end to all forms of terrorism, as well as all support to it, including financing of terrorism. We strongly call for concerted regional and international cooperation to ensure elimination of terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, including dismantling of terrorist sanctuaries and safe havens in the Heart of Asia region, as well as disrupting all financial, tactical and logistical support for terrorism. In this regard, we call upon all states to take action against these terrorist entities in accordance with their respective national counter terrorism policies, their international obligations and the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy 2006.Furthermore, we encourage early finalisation of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism with consensus.”

The Declaration also commends Pakistan and Iran for their hospitality in hosting millions of Afghan refugees for over three decades and called on all these countries to continue hosting the Afghan refugees until their sustainable repatriation and reintegration in Afghanistan can take place in a voluntary, safe, gradual and dignified fashion, in accordance with the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees to Support Voluntary Repatriation, Sustainable Reintegration and Assistance to Host Communities. The Declaration reiterates its support to the Government of Afghanistan in its efforts to advance an Afghan led Afghan owned peace process and urging at the same time all Afghan Taliban groups and all other armed groups to enter into peace talks with the Government of Afghanistan. The Declaration significantly stressed on the urgent need to integrate, through the land route, South Asia and Central Asia through the expansion of existing bilateral trade and transit agreement both northwards and southwards.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2016.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.