Qureshi to visit Saudi Arabia on April 3

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Saturday he would visit Saudi Arabia on April 3 on the invitation of the Saudi counterpart. Talking to media at the airport, he said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy deep friendly relations and Saudi leaders wanted to take Pakistan into confidence on the recent visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia.
To a question on reports of Indian intentions of seeking Saudi involvement in efforts for removing differences between Pakistan and India, he said he did not think India would have sought it because it always discouraged third party involvement in the matter. "However, as far as Pakistan is concerned, we have no objection to it," he added.
To a question on proof of Indian involvement in Pakistan, he said Pakistan had discussed the matter with India during the recent foreign secretary level talks. He said India repeated its stance on the Mumbai incident and Pakistan told them all suspects had been arrested and facing court trials. "We have told them that courts in Pakistan are independent, like India," he added. The minister condemned the Lahore bomb blasts, which killed around 57 people and added that Pakistan had been facing Mumbai-like tragedies every other day.
He said India had not yet come up with a clear mind on resumption of dialogue with Pakistan. The foreign minister said co-operation between Pakistan and Afghanistan would expand in diverse sectors and the target of enhancing the bilateral trade volume up to $5 billion by 2015 looked achievable.
"President Hamid Karzai, during his recent visit, appreciated Pakistan's proposal of tripartite co-operation involving Pakistan, China and Afghanistan to expand ties in the economic sector and trade," he added. He said that the Afghan President had liked the idea and said he would discuss it with the Chinese leadership during his forthcoming visit to China.
Qureshi said Afghanistan had requested Pakistan to host a Pakistan-Afghanistan joint peace Jirga in Islamabad some time after April 29 Jirga to be held in Kabul. He added that over 1000 representatives from parliament, senate, provincial legislation councils, civil society besides Afghan women would attend the Peace Jirga in Kabul. He hoped the initiative would yield good results.
The minister said Afghanistan was considering some projects over the Kabul river and Pakistan had proposed a bilateral engagement to devise a mechanism to plug chances of a misunderstanding on water between the two countries in future. "There is no misunderstanding today between the two countries," he added. He said the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement had also been discussed and it was resolved to address all issues.
"Matters of setting up rail and road link between the two countries besides a CASA-1000 electricity project for the import of power to Pakistan via Afghanistan were also discussed," he added. To a question about Dr Aafia Siddiqui, he said the government had provided sizeable funds for legal assistance to her and was raising the issue in every meeting with US officials whether in Pakistan or in the US.
He said there was a consensus among all including the government, the opposition and civil society that Dr Aafia should be released and efforts were being made for it. To a question on reports discussed in a US committee on Lashkar-e-Taiba, he said he would soon visit the US to present Pakistan's point of view. He said Pakistan wanted resumption of the composite dialogue with India. He added that many issues could be resolved through talks.