British High Commissioner calls on Shahbaz Sharif

LAHORE: British High Commissioner Philip Barton called on Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif here on Monday.

Matters of mutual interest, bilateral relations and promotion of cooperation in various sectors were discussed in the meeting.

Talking to the British High Commissioner, the chief minister said Pakistan highly valued its relations with Britain, adding that there were strong friendly relations between the two countries.

He appreciated British cooperation in education, health, skills development, law and order and other sectors.

Stressing the need for improving trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Britain, he said solid measures should be taken for this purpose. He said various programmes in education, health and skills development sectors were being successfully implemented in Punjab with the cooperation of British Department for International Development (DFID).

He said education was of vital importance for curbing the trends of extremism and terrorism, therefore, Punjab government was paying special attention to the uplift of education sector and state-of-the-art Danish schools had been established in backward districts of the province.

He said job opportunities had been provided to youth through imparting them various skills under Skills Development Programme and the scope of this programme was being expanded.

He said the Punjab government wanted to expand the scope of cooperation with Britain for the development of social sectors.

Referring to National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism, he said all political parties of the country had displayed exemplary unity and agreed on NAP against terrorism. He said steps taken under the NAP were yielding positive results, adding, the whole Pakistani nation had united to crush terrorists as terrorism was a big hurdle in the process of national development and prosperity.

Shahbaz Sharif said more than 50,000 Pakistanis had sacrificed their lives in the war against terrorism and these included officers and 'jawans' of armed forces, police as well as common citizens. He said supreme sacrifices rendered by Pakistani nation in the war against terrorism were unprecedented.

He said the war against terrorism was aimed at survival of the future generations and Pakistani nation would win this war at any cost.

The chief minister said terrorism would be rooted out and Pakistan would be made a haven of peace in the real sense.

British High Commissioner Philip Barton said Britain attached great importance to its relations with Pakistan and cooperation with Pakistan would continue in different sectors.

He said chief minister Punjab had taken practical measures for the progress and prosperity of the people of the province which was highly commendable.

He said Shahbaz Sharif was serving the people with commitment and determination.