ISLAMABAD - National Security Advisor Lt General (r) Nasir Khan Janjua has said that Pakistan is ready to share its CPEC prosperity with India as the neighbouring countries cannot stay enemies forever. For this purpose, he said, resolution of all disputes between India and Pakistan is vital. He stated this while addressing a seminar on the Economic Diplomacy in Global Arena and its implications for Pakistan on Thursday. The seminar was organised by the Foundation for Advancement of Innovation, Research &Education (FAIRE) here.

“Through the CPEC we can take India to China and Central Asia. We can serve half of northern India as it is largely covered from Bombay,” he added. He said that only Pakistan can connect the regions. Regarding the challenges, he said, there were several challenges to the CPEC as issues in Balochistan and Karachi have surfaced but all such attempts were foiled. Security and economy are two sides of the same coin and you cannot compromise on either one. I think economy is the back bone of security and peace,” he added.

 Although there is world order dictated by the war but war needs a strong economy. Economic diplomacy and its relationship with security is need of the hour, he added.

You have to look various parameters of security, including economic security, food security, special security and human security and you cannot call a country secure if its people feel unsecure. Security and economy is interrelated when you have strong economy you have strong security, he added.

Regarding Pakistan future, he said the world will come here for economics diplomacy.

Addressing the seminar, Governor Sindh Muhammad Zubair said that we have to choose that we want to be a security state or a welfare state as our current resources cannot afford both at same time. He said that when comes to individual level we do not compromise on the welfare and education of our kids no matter how grim the security situation is but we do not think this way for the people of our country.

“Our priority is security or welfare? We have to take the national level decisions in this regard as our decision will not affect our legislators, generals, elite or businessmen but a common man sitting in Dadu, Sanghar or any other part of the country,” he added. To have a well-equipped security has an economic cost, he said. He said that Pakistan has India on one side and unstable Afghanistan on the other side but we need to have rational approach. Today economy is playing the vital role in bringing the states together, look what happened to Saudi and India relationship? Why Saudi is giving highest civil award to Modi, with whom even shaking hand is a challenge for a Pakistani. Same is with UAE, Turkey and all other countries which are maintaining good relationship with India. He said that today only 60 per cent Pakistanis are literate, as compared to 100 per cent literacy rate in Sri Lanka, as education is the low priority for the country.

 “Our entire revenues of Rs4,000 billion goes to three main components, debt servicing, defence and provincial ADP. After paying for these three components we don’t left any revenue to spend on the welfare of the people. Our defence spending is 25 per cent of our revenue, he added.

Lack of education is the root cause of all the problems of Pakistan because we do not have enough competent people. “Most of us consider corruption is the main cause but the reason behind the corruption is also lack of competent people. Do not you think there will be corruption in the big multi-national companies, it is there but they have check and balance system and they have the best people working there who is capable of controlling the corruption.

He said that foreign policy is a tool in hand of the government to achieve economic goals. The prime responsibility of Pakistani mission abroad should be the development of trade and achieve the economic goals. Pakistani embassy in US should develop good relation with corporate America. Today we talk a lot about the CPEC but American companies are also important as they have a quite good investment in Pakistani stock exchange and if they decided to withdraw their investment then the stock exchange will affect. He said that the time has arrived where we should take a final decision that whether the people of Pakistan are important for us or something else? He said since the creation of Pakistan the constitution has been abrogated, suspended and violated several times. The countries cannot be run like this.

He said that why we should not get rid of Lashker-e-Jhangvi or why we should discuss Hafiz Saeed at the highest level even we discuss him with the Chinese president. Some of Pakistan’s friendly countries are advising on this issue and we need to take it serious as all of them are not our enemies.

Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing said that they have no problem with the expansion of CPEC or let the other countries into it. However, he said the CPEC is the joint project of China and Pakistan and both have to decide bilaterally in this regard. He said that CPEC is a new form of opening to Pakistan which has opened many opportunities for Pakistan.

The CPEC is just the beginning and so far 22 projects have started while eight of them are already completed. The CPEC is the one part of the initiative which is a new initiative or cooperation with China and other partners. This will be a new paradigm to start a new cooperation. He said that China is against the military alliance as they believe in peace. He said that peace and stability can only be achieved through cooperation and collaboration.

The Chinese ambassador further said that right now China is working hard to find international and regional partners, a partner of development, peace and stability. “We have been consistent and we will be consistent in our policy with international and regional partners,” he said.

China is lucky to have a neighbour and partner in form of Pakistan, he added.