ISLAMABAD   -  President Dr Arif Alvi has said a new morality-based world order was the need of hour and that the reason for this is the accumulation of money from poor to rich countries making them a haven of laundered money.

“New war is cyber defence and cyber offense. Don’t think in the era of the 20th century. The challenge is huge,” the President Alvi told the participants of the Conclave titled “A Peaceful and Prosperous South Asia” organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad here yesterday.

The President said as the vested interests had dominated global affairs, the world was currently looking for a morality-based international order for the sake of humanity.

He said in the era of artificial intelligence and the vested interests overriding morality, the world was faced with huge threats even more than the nuclear threat.

Lauding the role of the think tanks, the president, however, urged them to focus on their market as well as their acceptability at the user end.

The President said there was a gap between the government and the think tanks as the parliamentarians and the government functionaries rarely study research material.

Referring to the continuous arms race among the nations, the president said instead the world needed to show its commitment to reduce poverty which unfortunately was not being focused upon. Instead, the NGOs and great people like Bill Gates were striving to fill the gap, he added.

The president urged the world for a major rethink and feared that the new kind of war would be very dehumanizing.

He said the nations trying to teach humanity to the world always showed their concerns about the plight of women only after they left those countries after a prolonged stay and spending trillions of dollars.

Apprising the people for his fascination with the think tanks, the president said institutions like the ISSI could help the world take out of the prevailing situation by suggesting ways through their research works.

Earlier Director-General of ISSI Ambassador Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry told the gathering that the Institute had been striving to contribute to policy making through dialogues held at its five centres of excellence besides improving the research work.