[This is a rush transcript. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated] There are no opening remarks. The floor is open for Questions Question My question relates to Dr. Imran Farooq’s murder case in which the Scotland Yard has asked Pakistan to provide information and the two accused that were reportedly in Pakistan. What is your take on that? Answer I would refer you to the Ministry of Interior. Question The Iranian Petroleum Ministry had said in a statement that Pakistan was already aware of the sanctions at the time of the signing of the IP gas pipeline project and therefore, Pakistan must now abide by the terms of the contract. What is your response? Answer There were many elements of that agreement, including the provision of some credit line. Iran informed us some time back that because of the sanctions they would not be able to provide that. Since sanctions are in place, no other company or consortium has evinced interest in getting involved in this project. That’s why we have said that timeline would be to be looked at again. We hope that the process which is underway in three plus three would lead to successful settling of the Iranian nuclear issue and sanctions would be removed as a result. Then we can proceed ahead. Alternatively, if we can attract some companies that would want to build this project, we would be ready to do it. At the movement the situation is that because of the sanctions, Iran has not been able to meet its obligations and because of sanctions no company is getting involved. Question Despite the categorical denial by the Advisor in the National Assembly, the speculations that Pakistan is supplying arms to Saudi Arabia for onward transmission to the Syrian rebels cease to end. How does the Spokesperson of the Foreign Office assure all quarters that the speculations are untrue? Secondly, we know that air strikes have already started in North Waziristan and there are chances of a full blown military operation in that area. Have we talked to ISAF and NATO regarding cordoning of the border areas in order to impede the escape of militants to the other side of the border where they have sanctuaries like in Kunar? Answer If my assurances were to satiate this unending desire to speculate, it would have happened. From this place, I have explained to you the whole context of the joint communiqué and our position on Syria. What I will do today is to share with you the policy guidelines that we have for sale of arms. There are a number of things that we ensure before entering into conventional arms deal with any country. We do not supply arms to entities. The guidelines are: i. Adherence to the principles and purposes of the United Nations charter. ii. Recognition of the right of all states to protect their security. iii. Reaffirmation of the right of all states to self-defence. iv. Observance of relevant national laws and regulations on export of conventional arms. v. Consistence with National Security and Foreign Policy Objectives. I may add here that regime change from outside by any means is something that Pakistan has persistently and very strongly opposed. vi. Compliance with the UN Security Council arms and embargoes. That is if any countries is under an arms embargo, we do not do an arms deal with them. vii. Sub-Regional and Regional peace, security and stability consideration. In addition to that, we also have what is known as “end users” certificate which ensures that our weapons are not resold or provided to a third country. The text of this certificate reads “The goods will neither be used for any purpose associated with chemical biological or nuclear weapons or missiles capable of delivering such weapons, nor will they be resold if we know of suspect that they are intended or likely to be used for such purpose. It is also confirmed that the goods will not be transferred to any third country without the prior agreement of the Government of Pakistan”. You know that our position on Syria has been very clear and has been articulated again and again. You may refer to the statement that the Advisor made in the National Assembly day before yesterday. On your second question, we emphasize with our neighbors the policy that our soil should not be used against them and their soil should not be used against us. I would recall for you the recent Trilateral Summit in Ankara in which Pakistan and Afghanistan reiterated their commitment that they would not allow their soil to be used against the national interest of each other. Obviously, if there is military action on ground, our expectation from Afghanistan, in accordance with its international obligations and our bilateral understandings, would be that Afghan government would not allow any terrorist refuge on its territory. Question There are reports that thousands of Pakistanis are being deported from the UAE. What steps are being taken by the Foreign Office to address this issue? Answer At the last briefing as well, I was asked this question last week as well. I had said that I did not have any information about that. A day after that, we were informed by our Embassy that some Pakistanis have contacted them and informed the Mission that they have been asked to leave the UAE. They are not in very large numbers, yet Pakistanis, who are residing legally, if they are asked to leave without any reason, it is not understandable. Our Ambassador is in touch with the UAE foreign office. We are trying to resolve this issue. Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also in touch with the Embassy of the UAE here. We will do whatever we can to help and protect the interests of our citizens wherever they are. Question Whenever there are updates of Military operation in Waziristan there are reports that foreign militants were also arrested or killed –Uzbeks and Chechens. Has Foreign Office ever taken this matter up with the governments of the Central Asian countries from where these militants mostly come from? Answer If an Uzbek is killed in North Waziristan, the question is whether he flew there or did he traverse a lot of territory to get there. Terrorism also has regional dimensions. We are engaged with the Central Asian Republics and there is awareness in these countries about this problem. It is the responsibility for those who are at the helm of affairs in Afghanistan or who control that territory. The responsibility for not allowing one’s soil to be used against other is not unilateral .It involves all states. There is a responsibility on those who are managing the security situation in Afghanistan to control it. We have repeatedly emphasized to the Afghanistan‘s government that we need better border management. There are number of things that can be done. Our Secretary Interior recently visited Afghanistan. He had very useful meetings and a number of steps were considered and we do hope that subsequent meetings to finalize these steps are held. Question I think the confusion on Syria came from the fact that you had mentioned that Pakistan sticks to the Geneva-I Communiqué which was signed in June 2012 in which there was a call for the creation of a transitional government. But the question is whether Pakistan supported it at that time or not? Answer Well, our policy is very clear. First, respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria; respect for human rights. We don’t want bloodshed in Syria whoever may be responsible for it. We have welcomed Syria’s accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and its agreement to destroy chemical weapons. We have also taken note of the humanitarian situation there and we would like to see people of Syria getting humanitarian supplies. Syria is now part of the Geneva process which is under the UN auspices led by Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi. There have been two rounds of negotiations between the Syrian government and those who are opposing it. Though everyone did not participate, but some groups are negotiating. The bottom-line is that when Syria’s own position has evolved, when Syria is a part of the process, we don’t see any harm in endorsing it. Question There was supposed to be an extra ordinary session of the Joint Working Group on Cross LoC CBM in February. Is it taking place what are the exact dates? Answer I think that the tentative dates are of the first week of March which is not very far away. Question (Expunged) Answer (Expunged) Question There are reports that Police has written a letter to the Foreign Office saying that even outside the Diplomatic Enclave, foreigners are residing in more than one thousand private houses and that they have asked for their complete data. Has the Foreign Office taken this matter with different Embassies? Answer Normally, people who are in Pakistan legally - in their capacity as diplomats or diplomatic staff, we would have their data. Then there are people, who may be working for INGOs, people who come here for business purposes but that is short term visa. I think there is an exercise underway to rationalize that. BOI has a policy of issuing visa to businessmen on arrival at the airport. Perhaps, better controls are required to see they are all genuine businessmen. This data is not necessarily with the Foreign Office. Probably, Ministry of Interior would have this information. Question We have reports in today’s media that India has tried to couple the issue of Siachen with the ultimate resolution of the issue of Kashmir. Responding to this question please clarify as well where exactly do we stand on the Siachen issue at present? Answer I am not aware of such specific linkages which are being made now. We have an agreed mechanism for discussing, with a view to resolving, all the outstanding issues and disputes between our two countries - the Composite Dialogue Process. In that process, there have been a number of discussions and proposals on the resolution of the Siachen issue. As you may recall, we had once come very close to resolving this longstanding issue in 1989 but India backed out of that agreement. After that, there were other possibilities that have been discussed. There were many proposals which have been floating around. Unfortunately, we do not have the Composite Dialogue at the moment. We would hope that whenever this dialogue process resumes, we would look at these issues and try to find a solution. Question What is your stance on the death of a Pakistani, Shaukat Ali in an Indian jail? How many Pakistanis are still languishing in Indian jails at present? Answer For the exact number of Pakistani prisoners, please look up at our website as official figures are available there. There are some discrepancies but we believe that they are close to five hundred. Shaukat Ali died in India an unnatural death. We were told that he committed suicide. There were also reports that he was not a mentally balanced person but that begs the question that if he was not mentally stable what was he doing in the Jail in the first place? How can you keep a mentally challenged person in Jail? Question The Advisor had said in media talk the Pakistan has asked for answers from Afghanistan regarding the gruesome murder of FC personnel on the Afghan territory. Have we received a response from them? Secondly, there are reports that, Pakistan has repeatedly asked NATO and ISAF forces in Afghanistan to dismantle militant hideouts in Pak-Afghan border area. What has been the response? Answer On your first question, we provided information to Afghanistan that the 23 FC personnel were martyred on Afghan territory and we asked them to investigate the matter. They have informed us that they are in the process of investigation of the incident and they would get back to us on that. As for your second question, what is discussed between Pakistan-Afghanistan, Pakistan-NATO or Pakistan-US is not for public. It’s not our policy to conduct diplomacy through media. With apologies, it is sometimes not helpful. We do raise our concerns with the countries concerned. ******************