"It shall only be achieved with our joint efforts and with clear future bonding in mind. Pakistan is willing to play its role in whatever capacity to have robust and strategic relationship amongst ECO membership," he told the participants from the member countries. The two-day conference is attended by attorney/prosecutor generals from the member states including, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Iran is represented by its Ambassador to Pakistan Mehdi Honardoost while Afghanistan by its Deputy Ambassador Zardasht Shams in the conference.
"We need to have better cooperation and linkages amongst our neighbors and partners in the region," Rabbani said. He said that Pakistan has vocally pursued the agenda of regional integration and advocated inward-looking approach to work jointly for regional development, adding that Asia is rising and people of the region have to be the masters of their own destiny.
He stated, "21st century belongs to Asia and it is only through enhanced cooperation and linkages that we can rise together. The West has its own agenda and wants us to be divided and insecure but we, as Asians, need to exercise caution and face the challenges through collective effort." He added, "Our challenges have a similar nature, as our resources are being exploited by imperialist mindset to their own benefit." He cautioned the participants that the century for Asia would mark the region as the centre of conspiracy to destabilize the region on ethnic, cultural and national divides as the major players are trying to create regional conflicting hegemonies to feed the "Cold War" necessities.
"Thus nations in the region lost sight of their future and stood divided on ethnic and other divides for no good of their own, feeding only the purposes of 'major players' in the Cold War," he opined. Rabbani further said that the region as a whole has witnessed waves of destabilization and Pakistan, being strategically located, has remained on the forefront of this subversion.
"Destabilization of one country of the Asia region is never equivalent to destabilization of one country rather its equivalent to one building block that has to craft the destiny for the region, and thus an enormous loss," he added. He pointed out that Pakistan is signatory to or has ratified international conventions relating to human trafficking and has effectively addressed the issues of money laundering and terror financing, adding that it is taking steps to curb it.
Mentioning the steps, he said that in 2007, Pakistan's Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance established the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU), an autonomous body responsible for analyzing suspicious currency transactions in Pakistan. "It [FMU] is a powerful tool to tackle money laundering and the financing of terrorism," he said, adding that it is also an important part of Pakistan's efforts to demonstrate strong and transparent financial governance.
He said that two bills titled, 'Trafficking in Persons Bill' and 'Smuggling of Migrants Bill' are under consideration in the Senate to prevent and combat smuggling of migrants and promote and facilitate national and international cooperation for protection of victims. He asserted that human smuggling and trafficking needs to be defined, adding that developing countries are being used as market for western products but its labor cannot access their markets leading to unequal economic conditions in developing countries.
"This is creating unrest and giving international dimension to sense of deprivation amongst the citizenry of the region," he said, adding that this factor has close links with the war-driven economies of the West giving rise to extremism and furthering terrorism. "The West demands from us but our demands never meet affirmative responses," he added. The conference is being hosted by the office of the Attorney General of Pakistan. Attorney General of Pakistan, Ashtar Ausaf Ali earlier welcomed the delegates and participants of the conference and hoped that the moot would come up with valuable suggestions to enhance cooperation among the member states. The conference will conclude Wednesday (today) and it is likely to issue a joint statement at the conclusion.