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Pakistan needs to quit terrorism, experts agree at WION Global Summit

Panellists pointed out that terrorism played a disproportionately large role in South Asia, thanks solely to Pakistan.

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Pakistan stands apart as the only South Asian nation that doesn't share the path of cooperation with its regional neighbours, experts agreed, during a panel discussion on state sponsored terrorism at the WION Global Summit in Dubai.

The panel discussion on 'Uprooting state-sponsored terrorism: An imperative for peace in South Asia' wasted absolutely no time differentiating between Pakistan's 'non-state' and 'state' actors. The expert panel pressed right on with discussing the impact that Islamabad's in-house terror industry has had on the entire region.

"When it comes to Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives… any of the other nations in the South Asian region, there is no problem of terrorism. It is not like the problem of uprooting terrorism is the central issue. The problem is Pakistan. So, let us not define terrorism as a core feature of cooperation in South Asia. We are cooperating with all the countries in the region, but only Pakistan is refusing to cooperate. Pakistan has eviscerated SAARC," said Kanwal Sibal, who served as India's Foreign Secretary in 2002-2003.

His Indian Foreign Service (IFS) colleague G Parthasarathy, who served as India's High Commissioner to Pakistan, and is presently Chancellor of Jammu University, concurred with Sibal's assessment. "The main regional organisation for us (India) is no longer SAARC. It is BIMSTEC. Because in SAARC, there is no cooperation on terrorism… Pakistan will continue doing what they want to do till the army controls the nation. With BIMSTEC, we have good relations with all our neighbours," he said.

Hussain Haqqani, the retired Pakistani senior diplomat who now serves as Director (South & Central Asia) at the Hudson Institute, however said no amount of external pressure could make Pakistan give up its addiction to promoting terrorism. "For Pakistan, terrorism has been used as form of sub-conventional warfare aimed at achieving parity with India. Pakistan cannot achieve parity with India. That strategy has failed… In the end, Pakistan will have to end terrorism, not because others want it to, but for the sake of its own 200 million Pakistanis," he said.

One expert however, spent more time away from the topic of terrorism than the others. Michael Kugelman, South Asia Expert at the Wilson Centre, said peace in South Asia is dependent on more factors than just terrorism. "Just saying you are going to uproot terrorism does not mean South Asia is going to be peaceful in the future. You have to look at water-related conflicts. It is the ability to look beyond the here and now," he said.

Former Indian Army chief Gen Bikram Singh (retd) was more direct in his assessment of how Pakistan should be weaned off terrorism. "We cannot allow one country's agenda to stall the other's collective work. This is going to continue to be the thorn in every one's flesh. We've been adopting idealistic agenda for too long. You cannot keep giving your cheek and get slapped. Let's not allow the epicentre of terrorism to raise problems. We got to take Pakistan to task," he said.

Haqqani however was more hopeful of what the future holds for South Asia. He said the problem of terrorism was one that was forty years in the making, and could not be wished away overnight. He said a more long term approach was required to addressing it, and expressed confidence that South Asia would eventually return to being one of the most integrated regions in the world, on par with the European Union.

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