Former President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sardar Masood Khan, on Wednesday urged Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to develop stronger regional mechanisms to counter terrorism, particularly the threats emanating from Afghanistan.
Khan, who has also served as Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, China and the United Nations, said terrorism has become a shared security challenge for Pakistan, China, Russia and Central Asian states.
Speaking about the recent SCO meeting hosted by Pakistan, Khan said the joint condemnation of strikes against Iran by Pakistan, China, Russia and India was significant, particularly because India had joined such a condemnation for the first time. He noted that Iran’s membership of the SCO also contributed to the importance of the collective position.
He said the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), a subsidiary body of the SCO, was an appropriate forum for addressing regional security concerns. He said India’s participation in the consensus demonstrated the significance of the platform in bringing member states together on issues affecting regional stability.
He stressed that Pakistan itself remains among the principal victims of terrorism and continues to face attacks across the country, particularly in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said the scale of the losses demonstrated that Pakistan was paying a heavy price in its fight against terrorism, with security personnel and civilians among those affected.
He said the SCO countries had genuine reasons to regard terrorism as a common regional threat and that the situation in Afghanistan had remained a permanent item on the organisation’s agenda since 2001.
Sardar Masood Khan said the regional security environment remained fluid and required continued diplomatic engagement alongside security cooperation, particularly through multilateral platforms capable of addressing terrorism as a shared regional challenge.
