ICAPP issues “Istanbul Declaration” expressing solidarity with victims of “recent devastating floods of epic proportions in Pakistan”: Urges to “alleviate people’s hardship through climate finance and climate justice.

ISLAMABAD – The International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), Asia’s oldest and largest political party organization, has unanimously elected Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed co-chairman of ICAPP at its biennial conference in the historic Turkish city, with 200 representatives and leaders of 70 political parties from 33 participating countries.

Mushahid’s name for co-chairman was proposed by Thailand and Iran, and supported by China, Cambodia, Russia, Lebanon, Turkey and Indonesia, before being put to a vote. South Korea’s former foreign minister, Chung Euiyong, has been re-elected as ICAPP chairman, according to a press release issued by the Senate Secretariat on Sunday.

The ICAPP Conference, held once every two years, also issued the “Istanbul Declaration” which expressed solidarity with the victims of the “recent devastating floods of epic proportions in Pakistan” and urged to “ease people’s hardship through climate finance and climate justice”.

Senator Mushahid Hussain thanked the participants for placing their trust in him and called his election “a humbling experience for me personally and a great honor for Pakistan” to be so recognized at an important global forum, which represents public opinion and the political parties of the world. largest continent, Asia.

Mushahid Hussain called the current times a historic transformation for Asia as “the balance of economic and political power shifts from west to east”, marking “the dawn of the ‘Asian century’, which he noted the great visionary poet of the East, Dr Allama Iqbal, predicted it 90 years ago, when he wrote: ‘behold, the sun rises in the east’! “ICAPP is the continuation of the spirit of Bandung, which began in 1955 with the first Afro-Asian summit organized by the great Indonesian leader, Dr. Soekarno, in the Indonesian city of Bandung”.

Senator Mushahid Hussain said “the time has come when Asian hands must shape Asian destiny and the future of Asia”. He recounted his own early exposure to Asia, as a student at a school in Jakarta while his father was Pakistan’s first defense attaché in Indonesia, then his travels to China, Vietnam, Korea and Cambodia. and in other Asian countries.

Mushahid also spoke of Pakistan’s close ties with Asia, when Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah supported the cause of Indonesia’s independence in 1945, the question of Palestine in 1940 and admired the leadership of the Turk Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. He said the formation of the Indian National Army (INA) in Singapore in 1942 served as a catalyst for the freedom struggle in the South Asian subcontinent. Pakistanis also joined in solidarity with the Vietnamese people, while refusing to join the Korean War, although Pakistan participated in the Bandung conference in 1955.