HONG KONG, Aug 12: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said here on Friday that India’s acceptance of a nuclear restraint regime offered by Islamabad would reduce the risk of nuclear conflict and promote durable peace in the region.

In that case, he said, both countries could take measures to lower the threat to peace and decrease tensions. This would be in the interest of the people of Asia and the world, he added.

The prime minister was responding to questions after his lecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on ‘Pakistan’s vision for the Asian century: promoting cooperation for peace and development’. He was asked what role the nuclear deterrent he had been speaking about could play as this strategy had become obsolete in the 21st century.

He said that Pakistan was maintaining a minimum credible nuclear deterrence to ensure its sovereignty and security and this strategy produced results in 2001 when India deployed over a million troops along borders with Pakistan.

Mr Aziz said the century belonged to Asia but to realize this goal all Asian countries would have to work hard to resolve outstanding issues, including Kashmir, through peaceful means. He said that peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute was in the best interest of Pakistan and India as that would allow both countries to use their resources for social and economic development of their people.

However, all the three stakeholders — Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir – would have to sit together and find a lasting and acceptable solution through courage, determination, magnanimity, flexibility and leadership, he added.

When asked how could he talk about inter-faith harmony when historical facts about religions other than Islam in areas now forming Pakistan were suppressed in educational curricula, the prime minister said Pakistan protected historical heritage and the people of Pakistan were proud of their religion and they were living without any threat or pressure. He said he could send the questioner a set of books to establish that the perception was not correct.

The prime minister called for collective efforts by the international community against terrorism, instead of seeking scapegoats and blaming each other. In this context, he said, Pakistan was blamed by the media for London attacks but it turned out that no Pakistani national was involved in the incident.

Similarly, the entire Western media blamed Pakistanis for blasts in Egypt despite the fact that within 24 hours it was proved that none of the six Pakistanis mentioned in the media reports had ever visited Sham-el Sheikh where the incident had taken place.

Mr Aziz said the international community would have to tackle the terrorism issue in a holistic way as only the use of force was not enough without addressing root causes. Deprivation, frustration and anger especially due to unresolved Palestinian problem, the situation in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq bred terrorism, he said.

These problems could not be solved through use of force alone, the prime minister said and added that the West abandoned Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Russian forces that resulted in the rise of Al Qaeda.

The prime minister said the most important factor for peace and development in Asia was the relationship between Pakistan and China as both countries had a long tradition of friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation. China had been a major partner in socio-economic development and a source of financial and technological assistance.

MEETING WITH CEO: Earlier, Prime Minister Aziz had separate meetings with the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Mr Donald Tsang, and leaders of the business community to seek investment in various sectors, power, energy, telecom, real estate development and export-oriented industry.