By IINA
Islamabad : Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf urged the Muslim world to optimize its potential and to collectively focus energies to avert the looming crises in energy, water and food sectors. Inaugurating the 13th General Assembly meeting of OIC Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH), Musharraf said the Muslim world faces the threat of being marginalized. He said only through collective efforts the Ummah can confront the formidable challenges facing it. “We have to show collective resolve to take the Muslim Ummah forward and realize the true potential of the collective powers of Ummah by sharing and cooperating with each other,” Musharraf told delegates from the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).
Musharraf asked the delegates to study all possible means of strengthening cooperation among member states and to draw up programs and submit proposals designed to increase the capability of the Muslim countries in the fields of science and technology. “COMSTECH must specially focus on appropriate technologies to ensure energy, water and food security,” he said. Musharraf urged the member states to be wary of the threat of being marginalized and pointed that despite being rich in natural resources and raw materials, the Muslim countries were still unable to fully exploit these. He also called for initiation of a dialogue with the United Nations and other forums to address the existing gap while also removing the misperceptions in the West about the Muslim world.
Musharraf also welcomed the decision by the OIC summit at Dakar to restrict membership of the Organization to only those countries with a Muslim majority. Otherwise, he warned, these countries faced the risk of being marginalized and dominated by world actors. He said Pakistan was proud to have played its role as it believed in the betterment and development of the Muslim world. “We believe that the new relationship between the Muslim world and the West has to be built on a dialogue and understanding which could effectively deal with the threat to world peace,” he said. “However we have to impress upon the West that extremism cannot be eliminated when economic inequalities continue to threaten national regional and global peace.”
Musharraf said the best way to counter extremism was to “reduce socio-economic disparities around the world.” “The Muslim world, despite being a pioneer in different sciences and innovation, was lagging far behind and has slid down considerably in the graph as compared to the West,” he said adding Pakistan was today the largest single contributor and has so far provided $1 million to COMSTECH, collected another $5 million from member states besides spending $ 8 million for COMSTECH. Musharraf urged the Muslim world for contributions to strengthen in areas of science and technology. He said still 39 percent of population lived below the poverty level, and despite being 19 percent of the world population its contribution towards world income was only 8 percent. He said of the 50 least developed countries 22 belonged to the Muslim world.
The Muslim countries had 70 percent of energy resources, and 40 percent natural resources yet its trade share was only 7-8 percent globally. Even the trade within the Muslim world was less than 13 percent. The President also conferred the COMSTECH’s award to Prof. Ibrahim al Tayyab of Sudan in Mathematics and Prof. Mohammad Mehdi Sheikh Jabari of Iran in Physics.