Pak prez will also ask ‘cherished ally’ for financial support
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China are expected to sign a civil nuclear agreement during President Asif Ali Zardari’s maiden state visit to the Communist nation, the country’s envoy to Beijing said on Tuesday.
Both countries have always supported the peaceful use of civil nuclear energy and an agreement in this connection is expected to be signed during the President’s visit to China which began on Tuesday, Ambassador Masood Khan said.
The two countries will ink several agreements in the fields of technology, agriculture and minerals. They will also sign an investment protocol to their existing free trade agreement to boost investments in Pakistan, he told Geo News channel.
Though Khan did not give details of the proposed pact, officials were quoted by a newspaper as saying that a nuclear deal with China would be the “main item” on Zardari’s agenda.
An official told the newspaper that Zardari would seek a nuclear deal with China to meet Pakistan’s increasing energy needs. “What we need from our Chinese friends is the building of new nuclear reactors with their help and indications are already there that they will not disappoint us,” the official said.
The government led by Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party is under pressure from domestic political circles to seek a civil nuclear deal with China to match the atomic pact finalised between India and the US.
PM Yousuf Raza Gilani has urged the US to extend a similar deal to Pakistan and called on the world community not to discriminate between Pakistan and India in this regard.
Recent reports have suggested that Pakistan will seek help from China for establishing a satellite communications system and building two more atomic reactors at its Chashma nuclear project. The project already has two power plants built with Chinese assistance.
The two proposed reactors are expected to cost over Rs139bn, including a foreign exchange component of Rs99.538bn. Experts believe only an “all-weather ally” like China could assist Pakistan in the nuclear sector at a time when the country is grappling with a crippling economic crunch. The first nuclear reactor at the Chashma site now generates 300MW of electricity and the second reactor is currently being completed. The two new reactors are expected to be completed in eight years.
Suicide attacks un-Islamic
A conference of Islamic clerics from across Pakistan on Tuesday issued a fatwa declaring suicide bombings as “un-Islamic”. The edict issued unanimously by the Muttahida Ulema Council during a meeting at the Jamia Naeemia in Lahore is significant as it came in the wake of devastating suicide bomb attacks in the country that have claimed hundreds of lives.
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