Safma seminar for hands-off policy on Yemen issue

LAHORE: Speakers at a seminar on Thursday were unanimous in their views that Pakistan should stay out of the Yemen conflict and play the role of a mediator in the peace process, says a press release.
Addressing the event titled ‘The Limits and Extent of Pak Military Engagement in Arabian Peninsula’, veteran political analyst Dr Waseem said there was an almost informal consensus in the society that Pakistan should not get involved. However, the dilemma was that the government was not taking into account the views of its supporters and voters, he added.“No doubt, on different occasion in the past, Saudi Arabia has been supporting Pakistan; however, its involvement in the Saudi offensive against Yemen is not going to pacify the conflict.”
Senior journalist Ahmed Rashid said Pakistan had yet to define the issue of Yemen and its own national interests. “Since this issue emerged, there is no clear state policy. Our Foreign Office has been confusing the public by giving confusing statement every other day.”
“In light of our national interests, Pakistan needs to define a policy based on its self interest. A failure in that will be the failure of our state, he warned.He also said the Saudi threat perception from Yemen’s internal conflict made no sense, adding “the real threat to Saudi Arabia and the whole Middle East is Daish.”
Former foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri welcomed the debate in the Parliament and said the government was yet to table a resolution on the issue.He feared that the PML-N government was not in a position to decide the matter on its own. “Whatever is going to be decided will ultimately be the military’s call.”
Kasuri said Pakistan in the past, during his tenure in the Foreign Office too, pushed Iran against the wall on certain issues following the policies of the world’s big powers. However, it was time for Pakistan to rise above the inadequacies of the past policy and treat Iran as a brotherly neighbour since both countries shared historical, linguistic and cultural ties, he added.
Safma Secretary General Imtiaz Alam said there was no threat to the territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia or sacred religious places from the actions or potential influence of the Yemeni rebels.
By joining the Saudi-led coalition, he said, Pakistan cannot afford to get involved in a fratricidal war with great consequences for the unity of the country and across the Muslim world.At the end, the house unanimously passed a resolution, urging the government to keep off from the conflict and involve United Nations Security Council to mediate the conflict for peaceful resolution of the civil war in Yemen.
It said the main threat to the peace and security of the Middle East was from the extremist religious outfits, such as Daish and Al-Qaeda and both Iran and Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries should join hands in defeating the scourge of terrorism.
The resolution cautioned that if the war continues then Yemen could be divided with wider repercussions for Arabian Peninsula. It asked the government to adopt a transparent policy, take the Parliament in confidence and “avoid jumping in the fire of a war far away from us”. The gathering also cautioned Saudi Arabia and Iran not to promote proxy wars against each other.