Amid his back to back engagements in the United States, President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday held meetings here with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), President, the Nato Secretary General and the UAE Foreign Minister of after the FoDP summit and discussed wide ranging issues concerning Pakistan.
Spokesperson to President former Senator Farhatullah Babar, briefing the newsmen said the first dignitary to call on the President on Thursday was the Haruhiko Kuroda, the ADB President, who praised the steps taken by Pakistan for the macroeconomic stability of the country which he said had borne fruit in a short span of time.
Haruhiko exuded the confidence of the bank that with measures already taken for Pakistan's economy was bound to grow much faster in the days to come. The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Secretary General to the President Salman Farooqui and Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani.
President Asif Ali Zardari appreciated the lead role of the ADB in mobilising resources in co-ordination with the World Bank and other donor agencies to reform and support Pakistan's energy sector. He further said that energy was a critical area, which had to be tackled urgently to kick up the sluggish economic growth and asked the Bank to fast track mega economic projects including the Basha dam and other energy projects in the country.
Quoting the President, Farhatullah Babar said a memorandum of understanding had also been signed with a Chinese firm for building the Bunji dam in Northern Areas on build, operate and transfer basis. The President said that Pakistan looked forward to investors who could arrange their own finances and urged the Bank to facilitate the prospective bidders in the project.
President Zardari also said that plans had been drawn up for building thirteen small and medium dams in all the four provinces of the country and said the ADB could play a role in their building. The state lands in the command areas of these dams would be given free of cost to the poor women with view to empowering them while at the same time the economically backward areas were uplifted, he added.
Haruhiko who had also attended the FoDP Summit complimented the President on the successful outcome of the summit and said it was the result of the genuine success achieved by Pakistan that had given confidence to the international community. The second leader to call on the President was the Nato Secretary General who commended the bold measures taken by Pakistan against the militants and appreciated the initiatives taken for the improvement of relations with Afghanistan and India.
Referring to the President's recent remarks that militants posed the most serious threat to Pakistan, he said the statesman like remarks reflected a correct appreciation of the threats to the country and was widely commended for its forthrightness.
The meeting with the Nato Secretary General was also attended by ANP President Asfandyar Wali Khan who also made a presentation on the militants' threat to the country and how the tens of thousands of international forces stationed in Afghanistan had failed to control the cross border movement of drugs and weapons. Issues relating to the war on terror also came under discussion during the meeting.
Meeting with the Nato boss was followed by a meeting with the UAE Foreign Minister, who also complimented the President on the political support extended by the FoDP to Pakistan. Bilateral issues and the situation in the region also came under discussion on the occasion.