Record of the Press Briefing by Spokesperson on 3rd January 2014

Assalam-o-Aalaikum and Happy New Year
There are no opening remarks. The floor is open for Questions

Question
Saudi Foreign Minister is due in Islamabad, what is the purpose of his visit? What issues are likely to be discussed? Also, there are speculations in the media that he is bringing a special message from Saudi leadership concerning former President Pervaiz Musharaf’s treason trial?

Answer

Yes, I have seen the media reports, they are fascinating. Even when the UAE President arrived on a private visit for hunting in Pakistan, I read reports that he has come on a special flight with the purpose of taking former President Musharaf along. Now this story is pegged to the visit of Saudi Foreign Minister. The background is that when Prime Minister went to New York in September last year to attend the UN General Assembly session and the Saudi Foreign Minister met him there. It was decided that he would visit Pakistan. The dates were being worked out and now he will be here on 6th and 7th of January. This is normal interaction between states. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan enjoy a very close relationship and this would be the first high level visit after the new government in Pakistan took office.

Question
There are reports that there are on-going discussions between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia concerning Security cooperation, can you confirm these?
Secondly, is there anything regarding Mr.Musharaf’s trial which might be discussed in his visit as there are reports that he might be sent in exile to KSA?
Thirdly, the power break-down in the Foreign Office yesterday, was it related to non-payment of bills?

Answer
The last question first. The power break-down was caused due to some technical fault.CDA and IESCO officials were here and these people might still be here to ensure that such problems do not occur in future. It has nothing to do with non-payment of bills.

On the question of former president Pervaiz Musharaf, I have no information. For that you will have to contact the Ministry of Interior.

As for your first question, yes, we have collaboration with the Saudis, there are some training programs being conducted. Their officers come here for receiving training. I am not aware of any proposal relating to security being discussed between the two countries. May be DG ISPR will be better placed to respond to that one.

Question
Please refer to the reports that Pakistan’s missions in Chile and Ireland have been closed and that the commercial wings of many diplomatic Missions are being wound up. Your comments please.

Answer
Yes, the Prime Minster formed a committee headed by the Finance Minister to look at the possibilities of reducing the cost on missions abroad and this committee had representation from every ministry including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By consensus, some recommendations were made which the Prime Minister approved. Yes, two missions are being closed, Chile and Ireland. Apart from that there will be some rationalization of big missions. Also some related measures will be taken for instance, people who were posted abroad in non-English speaking countries will be now required to know the local language so that they are able to communicate with the local business community in case of commercial counselors and media in case of press counselors. So these processes are underway. Instructions have been sent out and all the ministries and government departments which were part of this are already taking steps in accordance with the instructions.

Question
There are reports that China is investing $6 billion for building the first-ever atomic power plant in Pakistan. Is that correct, if so, what are the dimensions and specifications of this plant?
Answer

Yes, building nuclear power plants is part of our energy-mix. It is the first-ever atomic power plant of this size in Pakistan. The previous ones were much smaller. We had a detailed discussion on Pak-China nuclear cooperation in the last press briefing, I would request you to kindly refer to the record of that for detail.

Question
This is the first briefing of the year 2014 which is very important keeping in mind the US and NATO drawdown from Afghanistan. How does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs plan for it given Pakistan’s desire of sustainable peace in Afghanistan?

Secondly, I would like to ask if any progress is made on the reconciliation process between HPC and Taliban as we have seen statements from Mr. Sartaj Aziz on Pakistan’s efforts to establish peace in Afghanistan.

Answer
First, the vision we have for Afghanistan has been enunciated many a times. The Prime Minister and the Advisor to the Prime Minister Mr. Sartaj Aziz has talked about it and we, from this forum, have been emphasizing that. For us, it is our major Foreign Policy objective that our neighborhood is peaceful so that we are able to focus on our economic development. For that we need peace within and peace without. Stable Afghanistan will also open up economic opportunities for Pakistan vis-a-vis Central Asia. Our vision is that 2014 will bring peace and stability in Afghanistan as a result of inclusive elections. As far as the drawdown is concerned, no-one knows for now what will be the shape of the drawdown. Of course it depends on BSA and other things being negotiated between the Governments of Afghanistan and the US. From our side, we will continue to play our part and contribute in whatever way we can to the reconciliation process which is afghan-led and afghan-owned.

As for the second part, we have repeatedly made it clear and demonstrated that we would help as far as possible in Afghan Reconciliation Process. We have facilitated the meeting between HPC and Mullah Bradar and we are willing to extend our support if any other meeting of that kind or some other steps are required to help this process.

Question
There are reports that Afghanistan has transferred the bulk of Afghan Transit Trade from Pakistan to Iran and 75% of the transit trade is now being done through Iran. Can you give us the figures of the volume of the Afghan transit trade which was previously done through Pakistan and the latest figures after reduction?

Answer
I will have to check the exact figures but naturally sovereign countries have options and the right to choose the trade routes they want to use. Being a neighbour of a land locked country Afghanistan, Pakistan has the responsibility to provide trade access to them which we have been doing. The volume of trade, I don’t know how much it is, probably FBR would have the exact figures. I would check with our Afghan Transit Trade Cell as well and get back to you.

Question
Over the last few years we have seen repeated border violations and incidents of rocket firing by Iran across the border in Balochistan into Pakistan. Why is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs silent on this? Is it not violation of our national sovereignty?

Answer
It is not something that happens on daily basis. Sometimes there are smugglers and other criminals that commit crimes in one country and run into the other. It might have happened while chasing those trans-national criminals. We have multiple channels of communications with Iran and we are constantly in touch. We have had high level exchanges. Recently the Iranian Foreign Minister Mr. Javad Zarif was in Pakistan to attend the D-8 Ministerial Conference and that was also an opportunity to exchange views on bilateral relations. These issues are now been sorted out. We have mechanisms to control movement across the border because if they are transnational criminals, they conduct activities which are neither in Pakistan’s nor in Iran’s interest. So we have mutual collaboration on that.

Question
We are very clear on the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s stance on drone strikes, but I would like to bring your attention to a statement by the Prime Minister while addressing the inauguration ceremony of the new Foreign Office Building where he said that opposition to drone strikes could isolate Pakistan internationally. Is the stance of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the quoted statement not in contradiction to one another?

Secondly, who will the Saudi Foreign Minister be meeting during his visit to Pakistan?

Answer
Well, the Saudi Foreign Minister will be calling on the Prime Minister, the President and would have talks with the Advisor to the PM, Mr. Sartaj Aziz. The meeting schedule is being worked out. Probably by this evening or early Monday morning, we will have the details.

As for your other question, thank you very much for asking it because I was going to talk about it in any case. I saw these reports and I have brought the text of the speech that the Prime Minister made during the inauguration ceremony at the Foreign Office. I have searched for anything in this text which is contradictory to our position on drone strikes, but I have found nothing. The Prime Minister said “Our Foreign Policy is based on four priorities, build a peaceful and prosperous neighborhood, reach out to regional and international partners, focus on trade and not aid and lastly develop a consensus based approach to counter terrorism”.

Drone attacks are related to counter-terrorism. There have been discussions in the Parliament and during the All Parties Conference there was consensus on the question of drone attacks. Our policy is very clear that drone attacks violate our sovereignty and territorial integrity and kill innocent civilians and that this is unacceptable. Perhaps what was misconstrued was when the Prime Minister said “We live in a globalized world where no one can afford isolation at any level. As public servants, isolation would make you oblivious to the needs of people while at state level isolation leads to segregation in the world community. Aura of elitism is no longer relevant and Foreign Service has to align itself towards public service.”

I think it is self-explanatory.

Question
Former Foreign Secretary and Pakistan’s current Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Jalil Abbas Jilani has said in an interview that complete drawdown of forces from Afghanistan is not desirable. What is Pakistan’s stance?

Answer
We have said repeatedly that Afghanistan is a sovereign country and it has every right to take decisions about its future. It is between Afghanistan and the United States to decide the nature of their future relationship and the presence of US troops on Afghan soil. From Pakistan’s point of view what is desirable is stability in Afghanistan which impacts us in more than one ways. If Afghanistan is unstable it has repercussions for our tribal areas. It brings more afghan refugees to Pakistan which result in more burden on our scarce resources and our infrastructure. We therefore, would like to see peace and stability in Afghanistan. We are willing to play our part and would also like to see global community playing its part. We are interested in the end-results.

Question
According to media reports, hundreds of Pakistani prisoners are missing from Indian jails. What are your comments?

Answer
They are not missing, as you know, Pakistan and India exchange lists of prisoners twice every year because it is an issue of concern for both the countries. We try to find ways and means to reduce their sufferings. For those people who are in jails, we have a judicial commission on that also. What we are trying to reconcile is the discrepancy in the numbers indicated in the list given by India and what our records show. This is something we will be taking up with the Indian Government through our High Commission in Delhi because we would like to see every Pakistani in Indian jail accounted for and provided relief.

Question:
Post the DGs MO meeting between India and Pakistan, everything seems to be under control at the LoC. Do you think this is good time for the Composite Dialogue to resume or are there other mechanisms to improve things further?

Answer
We have a structured dialogue on all outstanding disputes and issues between the two countries. We believe that we should resume as soon as possible. Engagement formally or informally is continuing. We expect that on the side lines of SAARC business conclave, Commerce Ministers and Commerce Secretaries would have the opportunity to exchange views. Rangers and BSF held a long and comprehensive meeting. Numbers of mechanisms already agreed upon for peace and tranquility along the line of control have been activated. But for sustained engagements we need to resume the Composite Dialogue.

Question:
As per media reports and statements by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh he wants to visit Pakistan. Is any visit by the Indian Prime Minister in the offing?

Answer:
There is an outstanding invitation to the Indian Prime Minister which was extended to him by Pakistan and was accepted .We don’t have any time frame for the visit as yet. Obviously we would welcome the visit.
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