Pakistan Senate's peace and cooperation pivot.

The interconnectivity between today's international, regional and domestic issues and challenges has created a need for interdependence and greater global cooperation to address common issues like ensuring economic stability and development, maintaining security and ensuring environmental sustainability. Be it the spectre of transnational terrorism threatening peace, security and progress; socio-economic ramifications of climate change; Energy deficit dampening our developmental aspirations; or eradication of poverty, the issues are more contagious than endemic and isolated. Likewise, the success of the development priorities and targets set under the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals is interdependent on coordinating a prompt response from both governmental and parliamentary levels.

However, the intergovernmental institutions the world has traditionally relied on to facilitate cooperation are increasingly gridlocked, resulting in a global 'governance gap'. In this regard, the role of parliament, particularly parliamentarians, has gone global, becoming central to international governance and diplomacy matrices. By linking local with the global, parliamentarians are better poised to influence and coordinate both international as well as national action towards realizing shared objectives of peace, prosperity and conflict resolution through cooperation and dialogue. However, while a number of multilateral inter-parliamentary forums exist, there is hardly any forum that capitalizes and focuses upon individual strengthens and potential of individual parliamentarians to address key global and regional issues that cut across geographical divides, impacting people all over the globe.

Cognizant of these realities, I, since assuming the office of Chairman Senate last year, have consciously and strategically endeavoured to enhance Pakistan Senate's diplomatic and international outreach using proactive parliamentary diplomacy. The major breakthrough in this regard came when we hosted meetings of Asian Parliamentary Assembly's Standing Committee on Political Affairs and Special Committee on Creation of Asia Parliament in Gwadar from 28-30 October, 2018. This grand transnational gathering joined by parliamentary delegations from all over Asia, Europe, Africa and also Secretary General of IPU proved to be a diplomatic, strategic and geo-political game changer for the country. Pakistan Senate will also be reassuming the portfolio of APA's Presidency this...