Address at the concluding session of the Conference of Pakistan’s envoys in Asia on November 15, 1972

President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto told Pakistan’s envoys in Asian countries that he attached great importance to the voice of the people in relations to all aspects of the country’s foreign relations and that applied particularly so South Asia, including Muslim Bengal.

He was addressing the concluding session of the four-day conference of Pakistan’s envoys in Asian countries.

The President told the conference that the will of the people of Pakistan would continue to play a vital part in formulating and conducting the nation’s foreign policy.

He said it was with the purpose of assessing national consensus on all important national issues that he would soon undertake the tour of NWFP. He also planned to tour the Punjab and other provinces soon after.

He said that the conference which concluded today was “more useful than the Izmir conference.” Because of the difficult situation we face, it was essential to formulate a “concrete and clear foreign policy.” In that way, the country could avoid groping in the dark.

Reaffirming that Pakistan remained an “ideological state”, he stressed the need to give Pakistan’s ideology positive and dynamic dimensions.

The President told the conference that Ministerial representatives would be visiting friendly countries as President’s special emissaries. For instance, Maulana Kausar Niazi, Minister for Information, Auqaf and Haj was due to visit the United Kingdom but his prime purpose was to visit centers of Pakistan’s immigrants.