Narco-money feeding terror: Zardari

TASHKENT: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday called for deeper regional cooperation against extremism and terrorism and vowed that Pakistan would continue to play its key role for greater peace and stability.

Addressing the 10th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Uzbekistan’s capital, Zardari said regional countries must also join hands to address the root-causes of violence and terrorism.  He said terrorism stemmed from abject poverty and it was vital that it is addressed by creating economic activity and employment generation, so that people on the fringes of extremism are lured to productive tasks.

The president pointed out that narco-money was being used to fund terrorist activities and called for greater collaboration to stem it.   He said Pakistan was confronting terrorism and extremism with a resolve to rid its soil of the two menaces.

He called for increased collaboration between Pakistan and the SCO’s Business Council and inter-bank consortium to boost trade and commercial ties. He said it would bring in more development and progress besides greater economic stability. “Pakistan, owing to its strategic location, provides the shortest and the fastest trade corridors to link Central Asian republics with the rest of the world,” he said.

About other challenges, Zardari said Pakistan could address the grave energy crisis by increasing cooperation with SCO member states.

President Zardari also extended full support to Afghanistan to help it fight extremism and in its reconstruction efforts. He said his country believed that a strong and stable Afghanistan was in the best interest of the entire region.

He said the law and order situation in Afghanistan was having a negative impact on the entire region and the two countries would work together towards a better future.

The president also presented Pakistan’s case for its inclusion into the SCO fold and said Pakistan was the gateway to the landlocked Central Asian republics with historical and cultural links span centuries.

The summit was attended by heads of state from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the delegate from Kyrgyzstan, and leaders and delegates from SCO observer nations -Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2010.