Fehmida urges World Parliaments to work for peace, prosperity

ISLAMABAD : Fehmida Mirza, Speaker National Assembly has urged the world Parliaments to come forward and work in close cooperation for promoting peace and prosperity, eliminate poverty and gender discrimination and explosion from the world. She said this in her address to the 118th Assembly of the Inter Parliamentary Union in Cape Town, South Africa today.
The Speaker said the Parliaments have important role to ensure equality and human dignity at national and international level. She said that we must encourage and facilitate ratification of International conventions on human rights, promote gender mainstreaming and ensure protection of minorities and disadvantage groups. She said that globalization offers great opportunities but its benefits are unevenly shared. She said that this injustice must be addressed and the benefits shared evenly for the benefit of development and good governance for promoting worldwide economic and social development.
She said that the world today was concerned and vulnerable to the threat of terrorism targeting innocent civilians. She said that we need to put up a united front and defeat the evil designs of terrorists. We also need a legal definition of terrorism, distinguishing between the legitimate freedom movements and terrorism. she said. Dr. Fehmida Mirza underlined the need for evolving a comprehensive strategy, to address the root causes of this terrorism was needed including redressal of political and economic injustices against nation and people in many parts of the world. She said that we should put an end to defamation of Islam and Muslim, work for enlightenment, moderation and alliance of civilizations. She said that the IPU and UN must be strengthened to achieve these goals. She said that was need to reform the Un to get better results and peaceful resolution of disputes in conformity with the principles of justice and international law.
She said that the lofty goals of peace and prosperity can be attained only if we have the political will to work tougher with spirit of mutual coexistence.
Referring to the recent election in Pakistan, Dr. Fehmida Mirza said that the people of Pakistan suffered a lot for the democracy. She said that the denial of democracy bred extremism and terrorism, leading to the assassination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. She said that democracy today was firmly established in Pakistan that needed to be guarded against intrigues. She said that Pakistan needed support of the international community to strengthen democracy, to alleviate poverty and finish extremism from Pakistan.
She said that the recent election in Pakistan has demonstrated that Pakistani society is moderate and this fact was reflected by voting for moderates. She said that women’s representation in public affairs was central to the functioning and strengthening of democracy and also crucial to the struggle against oppression. She urged the IPU Parliament to ensure women empowerment and gender equality in their respective countries.