Pakistan seeking growth-focused ties: Qureshi

COLOMBO/ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday said that Pakistan has shifted its “geo-political priorities into geo-economic priorities,” Radio Pakistan reported on Wednesday.

Part of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s delegation, Qureshi is in Sri Lanka on the former’s maiden two-day official visit to the island country.

Speaking about Prime Minister Imran’s visit, the foreign minister said that Pakistan has offered a credit line of $15 million to Sri Lanka for defence and security cooperation to “end the menace of terrorism [which is] of equal importance to both” nations.

Furthermore, Islamabad has also decided to also offer scholarships to 100 Sri Lankan students in the top medical institutes in Pakistan, he said.

Qureshi assured that Pakistan stood by Sri Lanka in the fight against terrorism especially when the latter was “in trouble and terrorism [there] was at its peak” between 1980s and early 2000s.

“They share credit [of defeating terrorism] with Pakistan,” he said.

He also said that the prime minister’s visit will help in strengthening bilateral ties and increase cooperation between the two countries.

The two sides also discussed ways to enhance bilateral trade and investment during the visit, Qureshi said, adding that trade between the two countries was below potential even though a free trade agreement existed.

SRI LANKAN MUSLIMS SEEK BURIAL RIGHTS:

As Prime Minister Imran arrived in Colombo on a day earlier, about 2,000 Muslims protested near the president’s office demanding that the government allow people, who die of Covid-19, to be buried instead of cremated.

Sri Lankan Muslims hope Imran will take up the burial issue when he meets his counterparts during the visit.

“He knows the situation and we think he will take up the issue with the Sri Lanka president and prime minister,” opposition lawmaker Mujibur Rahman told The Associated Press by telephone.

He said that the government continues to defy calls for burials despite a pledge two weeks ago by Mahinda Rajapaksa to permit them. So far, the government has not allowed them.

Imran earlier welcomed Rajapaksa’s assurance in a tweet.

Sri Lanka is a predominantly Buddhist country where it is customary for Buddhists and Hindus, the second-largest religious group, to cremate the dead. Muslims make up about 7 per cent of the country’s 22 million people.

The government has required cremation of all people who die from Covid-19, saying the virus in human remains could contaminate underground water.

Muslims and non-Muslims have protested the rule over the past year, calling it unscientific and insensitive of Muslim religious beliefs. The United Nations and the United States have also raised concerns with the government.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Sri Lankan doctors’ groups have said Covid-19 victims can either be buried or cremated.

With additional input from Associated Press