Says Asian hands to shape Asian destiny in Asian Century
\n ISLAMABAD
\nThe International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), Asia\u2019s oldest and largest organisation of political parties, unanimously elected Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed as the ICAPP Co-Chairman at its biennial conference here in the historic Turkish city, with 200 representatives and leaders of 70 political parties from 33 countries participating.
\nMushahid\u2019s name for Co-Chairman was proposed by Thailand and Iran, and supported by China, Cambodia, Russia, Lebanon, Turkiye and Indonesia, before being put to a vote. Former Foreign Minister of South Korea, Chung Euiyong, was re-elected Chairman of ICAPP.
\nThe ICAPP Conference, held once every two years, also issued the \u2018Istanbul Declaration\u2019 which expressed solidarity with victims of the \u2018recent devastating floods in Pakistan of epic proportions\u2019 and urged \u2018alleviating hardships of people through climate finance and climate justice\u2019.
\nSenator Mushahid Hussain thanked the participants for reposing confidence in him and termed his election as a \u2018humbling experience for me personally and a great honour for Pakistan\u2019 to be so recognised at an important global forum, which represents public opinion and political parties of the world\u2019s largest continent, Asia.
\nMushahid Hussain termed the current epoch as historic transformation for Asia as the \u2018balance of economic and political power is shifting from West to East\u2019 marking the \u2018dawn of the \u2018Asian Century\u2019, which he noted the great visionary Poet of the East, Dr Allama Iqbal, had predicted 90 years back, when he wrote: \u2018see, the Sun rising in the East\u2019! He said \u2018ICAPP is continuation of the Bandung Spirit, which started in 1955 with the first Afro-Asian Summit hosted by the great Indonesian leader, Dr Soekarno, at the Indonesian city of Bandung\u2019.
\nSenator Mushahid Hussain said the \u2018time has come that Asian hands must shape Asian destiny and the future of Asia\u2019. He recounted his own early exposure to Asia, when he was a student studying at a school in Jakarta while his father served as Pakistan\u2019s first Defence Attach\u00e9 to Indonesia, and later his travels to China, Vietnam, Korea and Cambodia and other Asian countries.
\nMushahid also referred to Pakistan\u2019s close connections to Asia, when Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah supported the cause of Indonesian Independence in 1945, the Palestine issue in 1940 and admired the leadership of Turkey\u2019s Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. He said formation of Indian National Army (INA) in Singapore in 1942 served as a catalyst for the freedom struggle in the South Asian subcontinent.
\nPakistanis also joined in solidarity with the Vietnamese people, while refusing to join the Korean War, although Pakistan participated in the 1955 Bandung Conference.
\nSenator Mushahid Hussain also quoted from three different world leaders to underline that the \u2018current global scenario is unpredictable, volatile and unstable\u2019, noting that President Biden calls it \u2018the decisive decade\u2019, President Putin says \u2018this is the most dangerous decade after World War II\u2019, while President Xi Jinping talks of \u2018once in a century transformative change in the world\u2019. In this context, Mushahid urged Asians to \u2018avoid Bloc politics and reject any New Cold War\u2019.
\nHe also praised Turkish President Erdogan\u2019s role as a \u2018bold voice for Asian rights\u2019. A Media Forum, Business Council and a Tourism Conference were also held on the sidelines of the main ICAPP conference.<\/p>\n
Earlier, ICAPP leaders, Chairman Chung Euiyong and Co-Chairman Senator Mushahid Hussain, accompanied by former Interior Minister and Deputy Chairman of Turkey ruling Justice & Development Party, Efkan Ala, visited the site in Istanbul\u2019s Istaqlal Street where a terrorist bomb had killed and injured Turkish children, women and men, and they laid a floral wreath at the site, expressing solidarity with the victims families and condolences with the Turkish nation on this heinous crime against humanity. Mushahid also offered Fateha for the victims. =DNA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Says Asian hands to shape Asian destiny in Asian Century ISLAMABAD The International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), Asia\u2019s oldest and largest organisation of political parties, unanimously elected Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed as the ICAPP Co-Chairman at its biennial conference here in the historic Turkish city, with 200 representatives and leaders of 70 political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-296437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n