FO briefing: Nawaz eyes Chinese cash in power sector

During July trip PM will try to attract investment.

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will travel to China in the first week of July ‘to further improve the strategic partnership between the two countries’, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

This will be Nawaz’s first foreign tour since he was elected as the country’s Prime Minister for a record third time earlier this month. His decision to go to China indicates that his administration intends to focus on the country’s immediate neighbours to address its economic and energy problems.

Earlier this week, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal led a delegation to China as part of the preparation efforts for Prime Minister Nawaz’s visit. Ahsan, who returned from Beijing on Wednesday, told reporters outside parliament that the premier’s upcoming visit to China would further cement bilateral ties.

The minister said the Premier would also discuss cooperation in the energy sector in an effort to address the long power outages in the country.

At his weekly briefing on Thursday, foreign ministry spokesperson Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would urge Chinese investors to invest in Pakistan’s power sector. Asked whether Pakistan had been negotiating a 1,000MW nuclear power plant deal with China, the spokesman without specifying, said cooperation between the two countries in the civil nuclear sector was ongoing.



Doha process

Answering questions, the spokesman said Pakistan extended its facilitation to Doha process by urging all stakeholders to hold dialogue to reconcile their positions in the interest of bringing lasting peace in Afghanistan.

Referring to Kabul’s demand that Islamabad release all Afghan Taliban prisoners in its custody, Aizaz said the government will consider all possible measures that could contribute to the peace process.

The spokesperson did not say, however, whether Pakistan would free more Taliban prisoners soon.  Mullah Omar’s second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Barader is among those in Pakistani custody.

Talking about the visit of US Secretary of State John Kerry to Pakistan, he said dates for the visit were still being finalised.

Kerry was supposed to travel to Islamabad in the last week of this month but he apparently postponed his trip due to the crisis in Syria.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2013.