Pakistan''s Ambassador to the US Ali Jehangir Siddiqui has underscored the need for importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US to deal with the energy crisis and expand trade ties between the two countries, but political parties back home think otherwise.
In his interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Ambassador Siddiqui spoke on the potential of expanding trade ties between Pakistan and the US and the possibility of importing US gas, and restoration of peace in Afghanistan as his top policy priorities.
"Pakistan is on its way to becoming one of the world''s largest gas importers, and the US is well on its way to becoming the world''s largest LNG exporter," he said, adding, "there is a lot of growth in our trade relation that could occur".
"In the last 20 years, Pakistan has had tremendous growth in its economy and only last year our economy grew 5.5 percent. In the same period the benefits of that investment have been largely captured by the European and Asian companies," he said, adding that there was minimal presence of the US companies during the same period.
He also underscored the need for the US companies'' investment in telecomm sector, adding that the security factor has largely been addressed, as terrorism has been reduced significantly and there has been an 80 percent reduction in incidents of terrorism in the country the recent years.
Asked if he has held any conversation with the White House on the suspended military assistance, he said there had been no specific conversation on the suspended military aid, "but we have had a series of conversations about cooperation... we have a big agenda that we and the US are looking into together, which is to achieve peace in Afghanistan".
On Financial Action Task Force (FATF) putting Pakistan on its grey-list, he said that Pakistan and the FATF have agreed on an action plan to be implemented by the country in the next 15 months. "We would put those requirements [of the FATF] in action...Once that''s done over the next 15 months, the timetable that has been agreed, we hope to be off from the grey-list," he stated.
Pakistan People''s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have expressed concern at the ideas put forth by the Ambassador with senior PPP leader Farhatullah Babar questioning the timing of his appointment when the former PML-N government had already completed its term.
"The manner of appointment was whimsical, non-transparent, thoughtless and typical of the PML-N style; ''medieval governance driven by sublime non-sense at public expense," he added.
PTI spokesman Sibghatullah Virk stated that the Ambassador, a business partner of former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, has no qualification to represent Pakistan at such an important station. "We had opposed his [Siddiqui] appointment and we believe that he was sent to Washington not for the sake of serving Pakistan''s national interest, but for serving the private agenda of PML-N and their leadership''s business interest", he maintained.
He said PTI expected that the caretaker government would recall all the political appointees but it has failed to take any action and instead allowed them to continue their diplomatic assignments "which is quite unfortunate".
"Once the PTI government comes into power, all the political appointees will be replaced with people who know diplomacy as what we need at this stage is to work for the national interest of the country instead of pursuing personal agendas," he added.
Senior PML-N leader Senator Lieutenant-General Abdul Qayyum (retd) defended his party''s appointee to the US, saying Pakistan as an energy deficit country needs to deal with its energy requirement.
"He [Siddiqui] rightly pointed out energy requirements of the country and there is nothing wrong with asking for LNG imports from the US ...he [Siddiqui] has a business background and our government had appointed him to work hard on expanding trade ties with the US," he added.
"There is an age of ''foreign policy beyond diplomacy'', which is economic and trade diplomacy. We should support our energetic envoy in Washington instead of criticizing him for the sake of criticism," he added.
On Afghanistan, he added that Ambassador Siddiqui has rightly reiterated Pakistan''s official stance that the country wants peace and stability in the war-torn country and for the purpose fencing the border along Afghanistan must be completed at the earliest.
"We know senior State Department official Amba-ssador Alice Wells is in the country for talks and we need to convey our stance in categorical terms that Pakistan is not responsible for US failure in Afghanistan," he further said.
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