President Asif Ali Zardari Friday returned Karachi after participating in the 12th Summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization that was held in Beijing this Wednesday and Thursday.
Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar while giving a round-up of the visit said that the visit comprised of two components, one participation in the 12th SCO Summit and the other the bilateral meetings. In the first component the President pleaded Pakistan’s case for full membership of the Organization while in the second component the process of bilateral relations was carried further forward during meetings with Presidents of China, Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan.
He said that on the platform of the SCO Summit, the President while highlighted the sacrifices of the Pakistani people in the war against terrorism—a shared concern of all participants of the Summit— also pleaded Pakistan’s case for the full membership as it was ‘part of the SCO geographical fabric’ and ‘shared cultural and economic linkages with the SCO countries’.
Using the platform of SCO the President offered to host a counter narcotics conference of SCO states in Pakistan to find ways and means to end drug trafficking which he said provided financial strength to the militants.
Pakistan was poised to serve as a catalyst for regional economic integration and connectivity, the President informed the heads off states and governments of the SCO states and added that Pakistan wanted to work with them in all major areas including connectivity, energy, transport, infrastructure, telecommunications, banking and other areas. On the bilateral front, President Asif Ali Zardari held important bilateral meetings with his Chinese, Afghan, Iranian and Tajik counterparts. Farhatullah Babar said that the President also witnessed signing of four MoUs and one Agreement between Pakistan and China. The MoUs signed pertained to, one, the supply of water from Tarbela to Islamabad and Rawalpindi, second, the establishment of Special Economic Zone in the proposed new city Zulfikarabad in Sindh, the building of 6,000 flats and the development of I-15 sector Islamabad on private public partnership basis and lastly the understanding on mutual long term cooperation in the space sciences and remote sensing satellite needed to whether and flood forecast. The Agreement reached related to the dredging of canal and barrages in Sindh.
President Zardari during his meeting with President Hu Jintao called for greater Chinese investment in infrastructure development particularly in mega energy projects. The President also called for the setting up of the special Energy Fund for undertaking energy related mega projects.
