Warding off flood effects: Bilawal seeks world support to tackle disasters

Says use of force alone not enough to blunt extremism.

NANNING (CHINA):


PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari berated international community for pushing the country near total isolation and insisted that Pakistan needed “sympathy, support and assistance from the west” to help cope with “global recession and natural disasters”.


He was addressing the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (Icapp) in the Chinese town of Nanning.

He said that dialogue, deterrence, development and democracy “is the only roadmap to peace and that use of force alone will not defeat extremism unless it was tempered with political engagement and economic development”.

“We know that drones, raids and unilateral actions are not the answers,” he said.


Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is leading a five-member delegation.

The PPP chairman said that no other country “understood this war better than Pakistan, and no other country had paid such a heavy price”.

“My country lies wounded as a victim of terror. We don’t lack the will. We lack the means. We are neither complicit nor are we incompetent. We lack capacity to face the world’s enemies on our own. At a time of global recession and natural disasters, when Pakistan requires sympathy, support and assistance from the west we are met with suspicions and accusations”.

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said: “Sindh and Balochistan have yet again been inundated by heavy rains and flooding. Millions have been displaced once again and that placed an enormous burden on our people. However, we are a resilient nation and we will fully recover.”



Published in The Express Tribune, September 6th, 2011.
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