BEIJING, Feb 21: President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday described unresolved political disputes, such as Palestine and Kashmir, and resurfacing of religious prejudices as the biggest threats to global stability and urged the leading powers to make joint efforts for a peaceful and secure world.

He said non-resolution of political disputes spawned terrorism and extremism that together with economic inequity instituted the other main threats to world peace and security.

Speaking at China’s prestigious Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, the president gave his assessment of the global environment, security perspective of South Asian region and priorities of Pakistan’s foreign policy.

“While the world saw a momentous development at the end of cold war era in the last decade, new threats emerged because old disputes like Palestine and Kashmir persisted without resolution,” the president said while speaking on the theme of “Reflection on Contemporary Issues on Peace, Security and Development”.

And the new disputes of Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, he said, had now added to the list of issues, posing a danger to the world peace.

Giving his blue print for a secure world, the president called for upholding the principles of the United Nations and making it a more potent body. Pakistan supported the reform to make the world body a more representative and effective entity, he added.

He called for resolving all long-standing disputes with justice for peace and stability of the world.

“The Palestine and Kashmir disputes, that lie at the core of problems like extremism and terrorism at the moment, are ripe for resolution,” said the president and urged specially the West, the US and China to help resolve the disputes.

The president shared with the august gathering the peace initiatives by Pakistan for peace in the region and steps to resolve all outstanding disputes with India, including the Jammu and Kashmir, through peaceful means.

The two countries were following a dual track of confidence building measures (CBMs) and conflict resolution to address these issues, he said. However, he said that while the CBMs were going ahead, there was no desired progress on the front of conflict resolution.

The president said a show of flexibility and courage by all the three parties, Pakistan, India and Kashmiri people, was key to resolve this lingering dispute.

Everyone, he said, would have to move back from their stated positions as sticking to old stances would lead nowhere. He referred to his proposals of de-militarization and self-governance in Kashmir as the way forward to resolve the dispute in an acceptable manner for all three parties.

President Musharraf termed the resurfacing of inter-faith and cultural prejudices, especially against Islam, another “extremely dangerous” threat to peace and development. He underscored the need for promoting tolerance, inter-faith harmony and respect for each other’s value to combat what he termed a flawed notion of clash of civilizations.

“We need to develop inter-faith harmony and reject the notion of clash of civilizations,” he stressed.

The president strongly condemned the publication of blasphemous sketches as “most unacceptable.” He said such blasphemous publications could not be allowed or tolerated as they also contributed to encouraging notion of clash of civilization.

The president also rejected excuses for their publication in the name of freedom of the press, and said no one had the right to hurt religious sentiments of a people. “No one has the right to insult religious sentiments and values of other faiths.”

Identifying terrorism and extremism as other major dangers to world peace and security, the president said Pakistan was committed to fighting out the menaces. However, he urged the international community to address causes of the malaise rooted in political disputes, poverty, injustice and sense of deprivation.

He said that while terrorism had to be confronted with force, extremism could not be fought militarily as it was a state of mind and had to be addressed through a separate strategy.

President Musharraf referred to his two-pronged strategy of “enlightened moderation” to address the root causes of extremism and terrorism. The one prong, to be delivered by the Muslim world, called for rejecting extremism and terrorism and going on the path of socio-economic development, he said.

Under the second prong, the West, specially the US and also China, must help resolve political disputes and assist the Muslim world in their socio-economic development, he added.

For terrorism and extremism to be rooted out, the president stressed that both the prongs had to be succeeded.

In the context of individual country, President Musharraf said every country had its own environment and required different strategy to deal with the menace.

Pakistan, he said, was following both the short as well as long-term strategy to curb extremism.

Speaking about the economic inequity, the president asked the developed world to create and ensure opportunities for the developing world, both in terms of trade and level-playing field.

The president said regionalism was on the rise and added that it was the right path forward for development.

President Musharraf while quoting the EU and the Asean as the best examples of regionalism, regretted that it was not successful in the case of South Asia.

“Regionalism cannot succeed in an environment of lack of trust and confidence,” he said while stressing on the need for the bigger partners to do more to create trust and confidence among the regional members about their security, sovereignty and development.

The president expressed the hope that this spirit would be created in South Asia so that the region could also go on the path of prosperity.

He said that for attaining regional prosperity, intra-region cooperation must precede the inter-region and global cooperation. He called for making the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) a more potent body to achieve the desired progress and prosperity.

President Musharraf said Pakistan stood for peace and was contributing towards harmony in the region.

About Afghanistan, he said, Pakistan supported the government of President Hamid Karzai and the Bonn Process that has now been completed. Pakistan also had supported the London conference for peace and development in the war-ravaged country, he added.—APP