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British Foreign Secretary William Hague met Pakistan Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz at the Foreign Office here yesterday. |
In the post meeting news conference, Aziz said both countries were committed to regional peace and stability. He added that the main focus of the meeting was economic and bilateral issues. Speaking on the trade between the two countries, Aziz said Pakistan wanted to raise trade with Britain to $ 5bn over the course of three years. He also thanked Britain in its support of Pakistan’s case for market access to the European Union.
Hague said the Pakistani people had rejected terrorism by heading to the polls during the May 11 elections. When asked about British immigration laws, Hague commented that Britain valued people to people contact. He clarified that the immigration bond had not been decided and only related to high risk individuals.
The British foreign secretary said his country supported the Afghan peace process in response to a question regarding the opening of the Taliban office in Qatar.
On the investigation regarding the MQM and its chief Altaf Hussain, Hague said this was a matter of the British police and had nothing to do with the government.
“These are matters for the police; the operational decisions of the police of our crown prosecution service are entirely separated from political decisions and government. Any allegations of criminality or wrongdoing should be referred to the police and it is their job to pursue those and take any decisions upon them.”
Hague is in Islamabad on a two-day official visit.
According to reports, during his visit the British Foreign Secretary will hold talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif besides other top Pakistani military and civilian leadership to discuss the post-US Afghanistan scenario, engagements with Taliban and other militant groups, establishing peace and stability of Afghanistan, and measures to curb terrorism from the region.
During engagements between both sides, the issues of intelligence sharing, promoting co-ordination during operations against terrorists, cross-border terrorism, illegal drugs trade and smuggling would also be part of the agenda.