“Hadi is not legally fit to be President” – Zafar Hilaly discusses the Yemen Conflict at HIVE [karachi]

Karachi: “The Yemeni leader Mansur Hadi is not legal­ly fit to be Pres­i­dent. Under inter­na­tion­al law, no state can rec­og­nize a gov­ern­ment which has lost its writ.” These views were expressed by Zafar Hilaly, Pakistan’s for­mer ambas­sador to Yemen, at a round­table to dis­cuss the ongo­ing Yemen cri­sis at HIVE [karachi].

Ali Hus­sain Mehan­ti, a leader of Jamaat-e-Isla­mi, stat­ed that his par­ty strong­ly con­demns Sau­di involve­ment in the Yemen con­flict and added that Pak­istan should try to resolve the con­flict through medi­a­tion. Khur­ram Zaki, a civ­il soci­ety activist, was of the opin­ion that the con­flict in Yemen is an inter­nal mat­ter and for­eign pow­ers should refrain from get­ting involved in it.

Dr. Riaz Sheikh, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor at SZABIST Karachi, stressed that the Yemen con­flict does not have a sec­tar­i­an basis, but is rather a result of mul­ti­ple eco­nom­ic and polit­i­cal fac­tors that have caused the present sit­u­a­tion to erupt. The dis­cus­sion was mod­er­at­ed by Fahd Ali, a researcher asso­ci­at­ed with Habib Uni­ver­si­ty, and was attend­ed by activists, jour­nal­ists and aca­d­e­mics from the city.

HIVE [karachi] is a first-of-its kind space in Pak­istan – ded­i­cat­ed to train­ing, research, resource devel­op­ment and social inno­va­tion to counter extrem­ism and work towards an inclu­sive, peace­ful soci­ety.