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15/09/2004
THE ROUNDTABLE ON INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR PEACE AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS AT THE ROUNDTABLE ON INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR PEACE AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION, AVARI HOTEL, LAHORE 15 SEPTEMBER 2004

My name is F.S. Aijazuddin, and I have been asked by Javed Jabbar, Honorary Chairman IIPCR, to say a few words by way of introduction on the National University of Sciences & Technology and the Institute formed under its aegis – the International Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution.
NUST hardly needs an introduction from me, no more than its Rector Lt Gen Syed Shujaat Hussain does. The growth of NUST under his leadership is a tribute to his zeal and commitment to the cause of higher education. Its success is a measure of its contribution to the evolving social architecture of our nation.
In the International Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution held its first roundtable in May this year, in Islamabad. This one today is to introduce the Institute – and its honorary Chairman Mr Javed Jabbar (whose versatility defies introductions) – to the cognoscenti of Lahore.
This afternoon’s topic – a review of Pak-Indo relations – is both topical and immeasurably vital to our national interests. No two nations in post-war history have remained in such a state of conflict over such an extended period. No two nations have held talks for so long without actually listening to each other. I am reminded of Dr Henry Kissinger’s description of the meeting between a Pakistan-friendly President Nixon and a Pakistani-hostile Mrs Indira Gandhi in the Oval Office in November 1971, just before the outbreak of the 1971 conflict. Both leaders spoke, and neither listened. Kissinger called it The Dialogue of the Deaf.
For any conflict to be resolved, therefore, there has to be a preparedness to acknowledge that a conflict exists, and then to listen. Thirty two years ago, on 31 July 1972, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi spoke to the Indian Lok Sabha after the signing of the Simla Agreement three weeks earlier. She said in her speech: “The very first remark I made to Mr Bhutto was that we have to decide, Pakistan and India have to decide, whether the interests of these two countries are complementary, as they now, or are they always to be conflicting? That is a major issue to decide. If we think that our interests conflict, then you can have one agreement or a hundred agreements and you will not have peace.”
She continued: “....Our interests are largely the same, that the major problems we face are the problems of the poverty of our peoples, of the economic backwardness of our countries and the incessant effort of foreign powers to pressurize us.”
Has anything changed since July 1972? I suppose Nothing, and yet at the same time Everything. Today there is the growing intent in the minds of a billion and a half people in the subcontinent to live on better terms with each other. Representatives of the two leaderships are already holding secret parleys. The public looks to voices like yours to articulate their aspirations, and to opinions like yours to bring about an overdue change.
 
15 September 2004
 
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