Prompted by unrest: Chinese leader’s visit postponed, confirms Aziz

Says Beijing has agreed to reschedule visit as early as possible.

ISLAMABAD:

The government confirmed on Friday that China’s President Xi Jinping has put off his visit to Pakistan owing to ongoing political unrest in the country.

The confirmation came from Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz during the meeting of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs. “In view of this unfortunate situation, the government of China has postponed the visit of President of China which was to take place later this month,” the adviser told the parliamentary panel.

Citing the reason behind the postponement, Aziz said the ongoing demonstrations by Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had brought life in Islamabad to a standstill and severely hampered the working of the government machinery.

“The Chinese advance team which was here last week witnessed these disturbances and formed obvious conclusions about the unfortunate security situation created by these two parties,” he said. The adviser added that the government was looking forward to welcoming the president of ‘one of the closest friends of Pakistan’.



The visit of the Chinese president, Aziz informed the committee, was going to cap months of preparations, culminating in 38 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) and agreements, “both government to government and commercial, envisaging projects worth billions of dollars of investment in Pakistan, in various sectors of our national life, ranging from all important energy sector to infrastructure to economic and cultural cooperation.”

“These agreements would have unleashed enormous opportunities for the growth and prosperity of the people of Pakistan,” he said. “We were all engaged in substantive preparations for the visit. Unfortunately, in the very final weeks, when our preparations were to be finalized, the Pakistan Secretariat, which houses all the Ministries, was closed down by these demonstrators.”

However, Aziz said the Chinese authorities have agreed to reschedule the visit as early as possible so that the momentum generated by unprecedented pace of cooperation between the two countries could be maintained.

“We are in touch with the Chinese government on possible dates so that we can re-deem this situation and bring back the focus to the projects that were to be launched during the visit of the Chinese President.”

In the coming months, the governments of Pakistan and China will work together and finalise all arrangements for the Chinese president’s visit to Pakistan at an early date.

The standing committee also voiced serious concern over the postponement of the Chinese President and recommended that in future protests any kind must not hamper the visits of heads of states and working of the government institutions.

The panel urged the government to resolve the ongoing crisis and protests through the process of dialogue.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2014.