‘Visible shift of global power from West to East has taken place’

By Rasheed Khalid

Islamabad: Former director general, ISRA, Major General (r), Samraiz Salik has said that a visible shift of global power from West to East has taken place.

Gen Salik was speaking at an event on ‘Freedom from Want through Businesses and Entrepreneurship: Take Aways’ organised here by Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) in collaboration with The Human Security Institute.

Gen Salik said that concept of security has also changed from state-centric to individual-centric. He said that Pakistan learnt a great deal in terms of open door diplomacy from China.

Dr Talat Shabbir from ISS said that China is an exemplary case among the nations that worked wonders for bringing nations out of pits of poverty. He suggested that think tanks need to provide pragmatic and actionable recommendations for businesses community of both the countries.

During the discussion session, the speakers and participants raised points, shared their experiences and proposed suggestions. All the speakers and discussants agreed that following the Chinese model blindly would be a mistake and Pakistan needs to tailor this model according to its needs.

In his concluding remarks, Rafique Ahmed, CEO, Zekaab, said that consistency and qualified leadership are two notable dispositions that we must learn from China. Beijing and Islamabad have cultural, societal, and religious differences and that must be factored in while following Chinese practices. He also stated that a gender-neutral business and environment need to be ensured while at the same time more opportunities for women should be created.

Earlier, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, DG, ISS, lamented that human security is a topic that received little or no attention in Pakistan. He said that human security is a strategic issue. After the consideration of geo-economics in our foreign policy overtures, we have a new triad of national security comprising of traditional security issues, non-traditional security threats and human security.