ISLAMABAD: The Acting President Farooq H. Naek, has stressed the need
for further strengthening multi-faceted bilateral relations between
Egypt and Pakistan.
According to press release issued here on
Wednesday, the Acting President expressed these views while talking to
Said Hindam, Ambassador of Arab Republic of Egypt who called upon him in
Parliament House.
He said, “we highly value our relationship
with Egypt which are based on shared religion, culture, history and
commonality of views between two brotherly nations”. He appreciated the
assistance offered by Egypt during 2010 and 2011 floods in Pakistan.
Naek
emphasized the need for enhanced cooperation in various fields via
encouraging people to people contacts and exchange of delegations at
Parliamentary and other levels. Egyptian Envoy briefed Naek about
upcoming elections in Egypt on 28th November and elections of Shura
Council to be held on 29th November 2011.
He added that holding
of first elections in country after Egyptian revolution is matter of
pride for every Egyptian and we wanted to continue with the democratic
process.
He informed Naek that election will be held in
transparent, fair and free manner. Naek said, “worst form of democracy
is better than best dictatorship” and it is a slow process, which
requires time to take root. Reciprocating the Ambassador said that we
can learn from each other‘s experiences in this connection.
The
Acting President stressed the need for enhancing economic and trade
cooperation between the two countries. Egyptian Ambassador apprised Naek
regarding recent agreement on economic and technical cooperation signed
between the two countries and Egyptian Foreign Minister with his
delegation will be shortly visiting Pakistan for exploring various
dimensions of cooperation.
The Ambassador also added that we
will be looking for imports of both primary and manufactured goods from
Pakistan as well as scope of investment in Pakistan. He said that in
addition five training courses in fighting tuberculosis for Pakistani
candidates are being offered by Egypt.
The Ambassador conveyed
his desire to form and strengthen Pakistani-Egyptian friendship group.
The Acting President expressed similar sentiments and said that
Egyptian-Pakistani Parliamentary friendship group has been formed in
Senate and Parliamentary Relations be strengthened so that we can share
and learn from each other vis-à-vis legislative business.
At the
end, the Acting President prayed for peace, prosperity and success for
Egypt in comity of nations. The Egyptian envoy reciprocated the similar
sentiments and well wishes for Pakistan. Online