'Foreign policy framing to uphold national strategic interest'

12 May, 2008

The Foreign Minister, Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan's foreign policy should be devised keeping in view the strategic interest of the country. He said this while talking to newsmen here on Sunday evening. Qureshi said, 'We will review the foreign policy and two task forces should be introduced in the foreign office', he said.
'It is not necessary that foreign policy should change with the change in the government. It should be based on economic diplomacy' he added. Further, the minister said, 'Our political relationship with other countries does not reflect the economical relationship. We are now facing the economical challenges. Better relationships with America and western countries are in the best interest of the country'. He also said that presently, internal challenges rather than external challenges stress Pakistan.
Replying a question about human smuggling, he said that laws should be amended. 'We cannot blame the agencies fully for human smuggling as people are prone to pay money to anybody to go abroad', he regretted.
Further, Qureshi said that we are facing the energy crisis and the Pak-Iran gas pipeline agreement will definitely be useful for our country. He hoped that both the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) were trying to sort out the problem of restoration of judiciary and the matter would be soon settled in a very peaceful way. Replying to a question about whether there is any deadlock between the two parties, he replied that there is nothing as such.

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