Former President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan has said Pakistan’s chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2027 provides an important opportunity to advance connectivity, innovation, economic cooperation and shared prosperity across Eurasia. Sardar Masood Khan, speaking at a webinar on “Post-Bishkek SCO Summit 2026: Challenges and Pakistan’s Chairmanship,” hosted by the Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies (IPDS), said Pakistan had less than a year to prepare for the SCO Summit and deliver on its overarching theme, “Turning Vision into Action: Connectivity, Innovation, and Shared Prosperity.”

He noted that Pakistan had already initiated multilateral coordination by convening the first meeting of the Council of National Coordinators in late September. He said Pakistan’s priorities should include digital trade, multimodal transit corridors, infrastructure development, AI governance and expanded economic cooperation, stressing that new technological developments should not leave SCO member states behind. Ambassador Khan said the 2027 SCO Summit could become a launch-pad for deeper economic and security cooperation while also reflecting the changing world order.

He proposed operationalising Eurasian transit networks by linking the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with Central Asian states and providing them direct access to the Arabian Sea. He also suggested that Islamabad could host the operational rollout of the Universal Centre for Countering Challenges and Threats adopted at the Bishkek Summit, facilitating regional intelligence sharing and cross-border counter-terrorism protocols. He said Pakistan could also build SCO-wide consensus on a unified climate and water framework covering transboundary water management, disaster preparedness and green technology.

The summit, he added, was likely to discuss progress on the proposed Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Development Bank (SCODB), which would coexist with the Interbank Consortium and work alongside existing development institutions. Referring to the wider strategic significance of the summit, Ambassador Khan said Islamabad could emerge as a trusted diplomatic hub and a resilient strategic nexus for balancing major powers.

The presence of major global leaders, he said, would demonstrate the SCO’s growing role in security, trade and fair technological governance. He emphasised that the SCO should not be viewed merely as a “talking shop” or as a NATO equivalent in the East. Rather, he said, it was shaping a platform for a multipolar world order while strongly advocating the United Nations, international rule of law and collective opposition to terrorism, separatism and extremism.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)

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