Alvi calls for strategy to counter fake news in new world order.

ISLAMABAD -- President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday said the spread of fake news was creating misunderstandings and violence among countries and stressed on the need to counter misleading trends in the new world order.

Destructive philosophies and ideas needed to be replaced with the philosophy of total peace where resorting to war was not an option, he said, adding that that this will only be possible when all nations and people living in them were treated with dignity, honour and respect without any discrimination on the basis of colour, creed, race or language.

'As in the current era, social media has resulted in the spread of fake news and created misunderstandings and violence among countries and societies, it should be countered with self-learning and education and by nurturing our ability to sift authentic news from fake news,' the president said.

The president expressed these views while addressing a special session of the Margalla Dialogue, an interactive and policy-driven discussion, on the theme of 'Navigating the Great Power competition: Developing World Perspective'.

Says destructive philosophies need to be replaced with peace

He further spoke about the importance of shunning destructive security paradigms and doctrines in international relations. 'Doctrines such as mutually assured destruction (MAD), humane warfare, and the cold war mentality, should be discontinued and replaced with the philosophy of total peace, where war was completely eliminated,' he added.

The dialogue session was organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), attended by diplomats, foreign dignitaries, members of the academia and intelligentsia.

President Alvi said the principle of giving preferred status to some nations in the form of Veto power should have no place in the new world order which, based on experience, had the potential to be misused to bring misery and war to less powerful nations.

Mr Alvi said superpowers spent trillions of dollars on creating lethal and powerful weapon systems, adding that even a fraction of these huge amounts could have helped mitigate the effects of climate...