Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Imran Khan, discussed promoting bilateral relations in various fields, especially in investment, energy, food security and military cooperation, and excha
Terming the visit of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to Qatar as ‘highly successful’, Petroleum Minister of Pakistan, Ghulam Sarwar Khan has said that the results of the visit would soon start appearing.
He said that Pakistani delegation’s meetings with Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani were very good.
“Both countries are already enjoying excellent relations and this visit will further strengthen them,” he said, adding that now talks would continue at ministries level and the ministers from both countries would meet to take things forward.
Zulfi Bukhari.
He said that the Pakistani delegation led by Prime Minister Imran Khan had also discussed opportunities of investment with Qatar’s leadership. “In short we can say that it was a successful visit,” he added.
The Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Abdul Razak Dawood, told The Peninsula that Pakistan had offered Qatar two power plants — Bhikki Power Plant and Balloki Power Plant — which were completed in recent past and were in the functional form.
“We can privatize them for Qatari investments and Qatar has also expressed its interest of investment in these plants,” he added. Dawood said that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s trip to Qatar was very important and Qatari leadership was very supportive to Pakistan. He hoped that Pakistan would ‘get benefits’ from this trip of Imran Khan.
Abdul Razak Dawood.
“Qatar would also support us in energy (LNG). Now detailed follow-up meetings will be held between different ministries to fine tune future cooperation,” he added.
The Adviser said that Qatar would also hire skilled and unskilled manpower from Pakistan. Talking to The Peninsula, Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Asad Umar termed visit of Imran Khan to Qatar as ‘very good’ without sharing details of future contours of cooperation.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Zulfi Bukhari said that Pakistan would try to consume Qatar’s earlier announced 100, 000 job quota for Pakistani workers (skilled or unskilled) in 2019.
Ghulam Sarwar Khan.
“Our Ministry and Qatar’s Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs have decided to constitute a joint five member labour cell to facilitate the process of hiring Pakistani workforce and the cell will meet next month,” he added.
He said that the cell would speed up the recruitment of Pakistani workers. “We are also in talks with Qatar about recruitment of security personnel for 2022 FIFA World Cup security but nothing finalized yet in this regard,” he added. Zulfi Bukhari said that Pakistani delegation had received very good response from Qatar’s side. “Both countries are set to facilitate each other.”
Asad Umar. Pics: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula
Regarding expatriate communities, Bukhari said many new initiatives very in the pipeline which would create ease for overseas Pakistanis including the ease in sending remittances back home.
