WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 08: Pakistan committed to gas pipeline: Zardari tells Iranian VP

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari Tuesday said Pakistan is committed to early implementation of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project in order to meet the ever growing demand of energy in the country. He said the government was also pursuing a trade liberalisation policy across the border and proposed for elimination of tariff and non tariff barriers between Pakistan and Iran to further boost trade ties and realise the true business and trade potential on both the countries.
The President said the recent agreement between the two countries to work towards expanding Pakistan-Iran Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) to include additional items from both sides and making it an agenda item for the next meeting of the trade committee was a welcome move to enhance trade links between the two countries.
This was stated by President Zardari during his meeting with the visiting Iranian Vice President Ali Seedlou, here at Aiwan-e-Sadr. He said that enhancing bilateral co-operation particularly in energy, security, communication and infrastructure would help the two countries to overcome the challenges in the way of realisation of full existing potential of their equation and to realise the goal of raising the bilateral trade to $5 billion which he said was doable.
Those who were present during the meeting included among others Federal Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Minister for Interior Senator A Rehman Malik, Senator Babar Awan, Secretary General to the President M Salman Faruqui, federal secretaries Foreign Affairs, Petroleum and Economic Affairs division and other senior officials.
Iranian vice President was accompanied by senior Foreign Office officials. The Iranian ambassador in Pakistan Alireza Haghighian was also present. The President said that both countries were poised to play important role in the promotion of intra-regional and inter-regional connectivity, which was the key to the socio-economic development of the people of the region.
He said resource constraints can be overcome by joining hands and enhancing co-operation in all the areas particularly trade, energy, horticulture, livestock, communication, infrastructure development and engineering sector. About co-operation in banking sector, the President said the establishment of Joint Working Group and the proposed visit of a delegation of Iranian bankers to meet Pakistani counterparts would give impetus to the co-operation in the banking sector besides facilitating bilateral trade.
The President said facilitating export of meat and Kinno from Pakistan would help the two countries enhance mutual trade. He said that opening of a new border crossing at Gabd-Reemdan will connect southern parts of Balochistan and Karachi with Chah Bahar and Bandar Abbas through the Coastal Highway. He said Pakistan was ready to grant multiple entry visas to the businessmen from Iran on reciprocal basis.
Discussing implementation of mutually agreed projects, the President said besides expeditious implementation of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, Pakistan also wanted to carry forward the proposed projects of 1000MW Taftan-Quetta Power Transmission line and the 100MW Gwadar power supply. The Iranian Vice President said Iran had already laid gas pipeline on its side of border and was ready for realisation of the most important energy project of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.
President Zardari said destinies of regional countries were interlinked and they must work closely to overcome the challenges facing them. Militancy and extremism remains one of the biggest and common threats that endanger regional as well as global peace, he said. Extremism and militancy needed to be tackled collectively, the President remarked. He said it was high time that the regional countries work together and extricate people from the threat posed by extremists and militant mindset.
The President thanked the Iranian government for pledging $100 million assistance for the rehabilitation of flood affected victims in Pakistan. He said, "We look forward to welcome President Ahmadinejad for the 3rd Pakistan-Iran-Afghanistan Trilateral Summit" and expressed the hope that the forthcoming Summit would prove to be an important milestone towards their journey toward finding peace, stability and Afghan-led conciliation process.
Ali Seedlou thanked the President for meeting and while expressing gratitude for Pak hospitality said that Iran was equally eager for materialisation of all mutual projects and to partner with Pakistan to overcome existing challenges faced by the two countries and the region. He said Pakistan was an important neighbour for Iran and assured continued support and assistance of the government in all fields.