British Foreign Secretary's visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan

Foreign Secretary’s visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan

UK’s one of the largest development progammes
on education in Pakistan, Foreign Secretary

Dr. Mozammel Haque

British Foreign Secretary William Hague visited Afghanistan last week of June, 2011 with a purpose to “reiterate British support and prosperity for both these countries.” British Foreign Secretary was in a joint visit to Afghanistan with his counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was the first joint visit to Afghanistan between the European and Arab foreign ministers. “We pressed for the progress on and reinforce for our support for Afghan-led political settlement and Afghan-led reconciliation in Afghanistan. It provided an opportunity to continue to build up a structure on relationship between the UK and UAE and demonstrate the valid close cooperation in Afghanistan,” said Foreign Secretary Mr. Hague.

300,000-strong Afghan National Security Force
US President Obama has already announced to bring down the US troops over the next three years. “That announcement was welcome which is on line of our own thinking. There is clearly a programme on the ground in Afghanistan,” said Foreign Secretary and mentioned, “We are building up an Afghan National Security Forces now nearly 300,000 strong. They would be able to take over the control of the entire region of Afghanistan.”

British Foreign Secretary also visited Combined Centre where there is Afghan police and military forces. “So in many ways, the transition has already been taken place; but that formally happened in last week in Laskar and six other areas in months. And I was impressed by the work they are doing,” mentioned Mr. Hague.

Speaking about the reduction of British forces, Foreign Secretary mentioned, the Prime Minister already announced a few weeks ago that there would be a reduction in British troops level in Afghanistan. About 426 troops will be coming home this year that is above the 9,500 troops which will take place over the next year. Transition is already taking place. “But what happens between now 2011 and 2015 depending on the condition on the ground and improvement,” said British Foreign Secretary.

Visit to Pakistan
British Foreign Secretary also visited Pakistan. He had a long discussion with the then acting Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan “on a full-range of issues; strong commitment on both sides hands relationship between the UK and Pakistan”. Foreign Secretary William Hague termed the Pakistan-British relationship “There is an unbreakable partnership between Pakistan and UK and we have to build on that.”

Enhanced Strategic Dialogue
United Kingdom and Pakistan agreed to prepare a comprehensive plan of action to intensify cooperation in trade and business, defence, development, education, health, security and cultural cooperation. This was stated by British Foreign Secretary William Hague at a press briefing at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 28 June 2011. “There are obvious things that bind our countries together; the opportunities for trade, the shared determination to defeat terrorism and violent extremism and all the strong cultural family ties between UK and Pakistan,” he mentioned.

British Prime Minister David Cameron launched in last April what is called “Enhanced Strategic Dialogue between UK and Pakistan,” mentioned Foreign Secretary and said, “it is in the interest of both the countries to sustain and enduring broad-based strategic relationship based on mutual respect and mutual benefit.”

Five areas have been identified as constituents of the enhanced strategic dialogue between the two countries and Pakistan would share working papers with UK in moving forward on each one of them.

Mr. Hague also said, “We are committed to increasing the cooperation through national security dialogue as well. We discussed our shared interest in pursuing peace and stability in Afghanistan. Pakistan has a very important responsible role to play in that regard.”

Greatest advocate of Pakistan market access to EU
Speaking about his meeting with the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, William Hague said, Enhanced Strategic Dialogue “covering a wide range of areas including greater bilateral trade and investment.” He also mentioned, “We pledged to increase trade and good services between UK and Pakistan to two and half billion pounds a year by 2012. We are the greatest advocate for Pakistan’s market access to the European Union something which could dramatically increase Pakistan’s exports and we will continue to advocate strongly in the months ahead.”

Pakistan’s enemy is our enemy – David Cameron
British Foreign Secretary also mentioned about the “sacrifices made by Pakistan being on the front line of terrorism fighting and facing terrorism,” said Mr. Hague and added, “Pakistan is on the frontline of terrorism, making more sacrifices against terrorism than any other country paid on the planet.” British Foreign Secretary also mentioned about the visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron and what he said in this context. Mr. Hague said, “David Cameron said when he was in Pakistan in this context, Pakistan’s enemy is our enemy.”

In this connection, the UK Foreign Secretary also visited Police Lines Headquarters in Islamabad along with Pakistan’s Interior Minister, senator Malik and paid his respects to the fallen martyrs of the Pakistani police service. “I paid my respect to the police memorial recognising the sacrifices of the police martyrs and then met the families of the victims of those affected by terrorism,” said British Foreign Secretary. ..

Developmental programme on education
Speaking about the developmental programme on education, British Foreign Secretary said “this is one of the largest programmes in our developmental aid in the world, particularly for the primary education.” He mentioned, “6.8 million children between the ages 5 to 9 years don’t go to school at all. That’s one in ten of all the children out of school.” Foreign Secretary mentioned UK support for Pakistan in development terms which is becoming UK’s largest development programme. “On education, we will focus on helping Pakistan on getting more than four million children into school and recruiting and training teachers,” mentioned Mr. Hague.

Mr. William Hague said: “UK’s four year education programme for Pakistan would help get more than four million children into school, help recruit and train ninety thousand teachers besides provision of six million sets of text books.”

Q&A Session
In the Question and Answers session, replying to a question on terrorism, British Foreign Secretary said, 9/11 is every year in Pakistan. “Pakistan has made huge military efforts. Hundreds and thousands casualties and we always remembered and acknowledged them. Nevertheless, we have not defeated terrorism as yet. We know that 3,000 people were killed in last year as a result of terrorism. 9/11 is every year in Pakistan. Of course we have to do more together in order to defeat terrorism that includes reconciliation and working together including with the United States and the UK in order to even more effectively terrorist organisations.”

Peace in South Asia through Dialogues

Peace in South Asia through dialogues

Dr. Mozammel Haque

Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Chairman of the Parliamentary Kashmir Committee and Chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam JUI-F (Fazl) Party and Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, came to the United Kingdom in July this year and he was invited by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London to deliver a talk on Peace in South Asia on Wednesday, 6th of July and he was also invited to a dinner party hosted by All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kashmir on the evening of 6th of July.

Peace on South Asia through Dialogues
Underscoring the importance of peace in South Asia, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Chairman of the Pakistan National Assembly Kashmir Committee and Chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam JUI-F (Fazl) Party, said this was possible only through dialogue and mutual understanding.

The Maulana was talking on “Peace in South Asia” organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) held at the Arundel House, London, termed Kashmir and Afghanistan as the two outstanding issues standing on the way to peace in South Asia. Kashmir problem is a little longer and the Afghan problem is relatively newer. Rahul Roy Chaudhury, Senior Fellow, South Asia, IISS, moderated the event.

For the last sixty years there was this Kashmir problem and both India and Pakistan went to war three times. The Maulana said India and Pakistan, “having fought three wars, have realised that dialogues were the only way forward towards resolving the Kashmir problem”.

The Maulana said India and Pakistan “learnt some lessons and decided that instead of war we should come to solve these problems through mutual understanding and dialogue.” Kashmir is a regional problem, said the Maulana and added, “the better relationship between India and Pakistan is very important for global peace and both these countries were trying to resolve this regional problem through mutual understanding and dialogue.”

But while we are learning these experiences, the Western powers resorted to war in Afghanistan as a means of settling the Afghan issue. The Maulana said, “Instead of learning from the experience of Kashmir which brought us towards dialogue, the Western powers started solving the problem through war in Afghanistan.”

The Maulana said, it means that the world is now following two ways: peace in Kashmir and war in Afghanistan. “Kashmir is a regional bilateral problem which they are trying to resolve through dialogue whereas Afghanistan issue is an international problem and for the international problem the world is trying to solve it through the use of force. This is a paradox,” said the Maulana.

He mentioned that in the last 60 years, the situation in South Asia had been looked upon in the perspective of Indo-Pakistan relations but today the issue of Afghanistan had added to the list of problems facing the region. “We are still endeavouring to resolve the Kashmir issue when the Afghanistan was thrust upon us which has aggravated the situation and caused more blood letting,” said the Maulana.

Speaking about the background of the Afghanistan problem, the Maulana said the current issue in Afghanistan was a legacy of the Soviet Union occupation of the land-locked country. They have now been replaced by the American and NATO forces with the same designs and strategy as of the Russians, he added. The Maulana said, “If you go back to the incursion of the Soviet Union against Afghanistan this was said by the free world led by America that this was a war by Soviet Union to grab the resources of the area and Russia was trying to get hold of the warm water. Now this place has been supplanted by America and America is doing the same thing.”

The Maulana said that in the world there are two trends: one is terrorism and the other is the freedom for self-determination and independence. “Now the definition of terrorism is yet to be determined; but the definition of independence and the struggle for independence has already been defined very clearly and has been respected throughout the history,” he mentioned.

The Maulana said it was paradoxes that while the West wanted India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue bilaterally and through dialogues, yet it was trying to resolve the Afghanistan matter through the means of war. “Having fought for 10 long years and spent billions of dollars, the United States now want a peaceful way out of Afghanistan,” he added.

The Maulana said we had expressed from the very beginning problem cannot be solved through wars because 21st century is the century of knowledge, dialogue, human rights and mutual understanding. He impressed upon the West to combine its modern technology with the human resources of South Asia to seek peace in the region and enable the people to progress and develop and improve their standard of living.

“We have the human resources and you have the modern technology. Now according to the Qur’anic saying let us join both together; you have modern technology and we have human resources and we use this mixture of technology and resources together for the welfare of the greater humanity,” the Maulana said.

The JUI-F Chief said Pakistan had become the strategic partner of US but ironically its own territory was bombed regularly through drone attacks by the Americans, yet the US wanted Pakistan to do more. “Despite the fact that America considers Pakistan strategic partner, America praises Pakistan’s sacrifices; America sometimes tells Pakistan that you need to do more. If you do not consider Pakistan a sovereign country and if you do not appreciate the internal problems and needs of Pakistan then, of course, friendship and mutual confidence and trust cannot last.” The Maulana said there was a lack of confidence in the US-Pakistan ties.

Mentioning about Pakistan’s sovereignty, her Parliament, the Maulana said Pakistan has a Constitution and it has a Parliament and according to that Constitution Parliament is the supreme body of the country. He was of the view that due to the international pressure, Parliament resolution on drone attacks could not be implemented.

The Maulana said, “It is very strange that a person like me who is generally presented in the media as an old-fashioned person once inviting great powers for peace but the powers who were supposed to be leading the world to the 21st century they were bent upon trying to solve the problem through war.” “Now it is high time for the major powers of the world and think-tanks should once again jointly reconsider the issue and try to come to a peaceful solution of the issue,” he said.

The Maulana rejected the impression that Pakistani religious parties were fanning extremism and said on the contrary they desired peace in the region and had opposed the US policies in Afghanistan from the day one. “I want to bring on record that effort for peace is not limited to me nor to my party but it is a voice of all those who are associated with Pakistan’s religious politics. All religio-political parties and the religious institutions, the Madaris, religious schools of Pakistan which are generally projected in global media as places of terrorism, I bring this message on record that all of them support my vision of peace, global peace through understanding and through dialogue and if there is a difference of opinion or difference on particular viewpoint, this difference of opinion should not be taken as a support for terrorism. Let us talk with argument and reason because I believe ultimately strong argument and reason will prevail. This is my message to you and all and let us go into prayers together that one day we will see the world a peaceful place for the entire humanity,” said the Maulana.

The Maulana pointed out that the announcement of the gradual withdrawal of both US and UK troops from Afghanistan had clearly shown that the leadership of these two countries realised that the war in Afghanistan was unwinnable and the best recourse was peace through dialogues. “The news of peace talks with the Taliban is a strong indication in this regard,” he added.

All Party Conference on Kashmir on July 28
Lord Nazir Ahmed, Chairman of All-Parties Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kashmir in the UK Parliament, hosted a dinner in honour of Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Member of the Pakistan National Assembly, Chairman of the Pakistan National Assembly Kashmir Committee; leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, JUI-F of Pakistan, at Mumtaz Restaurant, London, on Wednesday, 6th of July, 2011.

The dinner party was attended by Mr. Asif Durrani, Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan in UK, Mr. Salis Kiyani, Counsellor, Community Welfare, and Revd. Rana Khan, at the office of Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth and British MPs Fiona Mactaggart, Simon Denchuzu and Lord Qurban Hussain.

Lord Ahmed expressed his great honour and privilege to welcome Maulana Fazlur Rahman to the United Kingdom.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir announced the All Parties Conference on Kashmir being convened in Islamabad on July 28 will discuss, analyse and deliberate in-depth the Kashmir policy and evolve consensus on the issue in display of national solidarity with the people of Kashmir.

The Maulana said all the parties represented in the national parliament had agreed to take part in the conference which would also be attended by the Kashmiri leadership and other stakeholders.

The Maulana said due to the current situation in Afghanistan and the internal challenges being faced by Pakistan, the issue of Kashmir had been placed on the backburner.

Referring to the regional situation, Fazlur Rehman said that Pakistan and India had realized the significance of dialogue and negotiations on the issue of Kashmir and had entered into process of peaceful solution of the dispute but on the other hand at international level paradox had emerged as war had been chosen as an option in Afghanistan.

He said that his own and his party’s stance right from the beginning was for political solution in the region through dialogue and engagement with the stakeholders.

The Maulana said that he fully endorses political and peaceful approach for the solution for various disputes be it bilateral regional or international.

Earlier, British MPs Fiona Mactaggart, Simon Denchuzu and Lord Qurban Hussain in their brief remarks called for the solution of Kashmir problem and said the human rights issue remained an area of concern of international community and rubbished claims by the Indian officials that this was a private matter. They said they would continue to speak on behalf of the Kashmiri community based in the UK and keep Kashmir on the public agenda.

UK wants deeper closer relationship with Pakistan

UK wants deeper closer relationship with Pakistan –
Says Foreign Secretary William Hague, M.P.

Dr. Mozammel Haque

British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, M.P. made his first visit to Pakistan as Foreign Secretary to reaffirm the strategic partnership between the United Kingdom and Pakistan. “Our partnership is far deeper than is commonly perceived. It is based on shared history and a myriad of ties between individuals and families and businesses,” said Foreign Secretary.

Foreign Secretary Hague visited Pakistan earlier as a Shadow Foreign Secretary but he was able to see more of Pakistan than he was able to see in his previous visits. This time he went out of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan and went to Karachi and other cities. During this visit, Foreign Secretary met the President of Pakistan Asif Zardari and had dinner with him. He also met Prime Minister Gilani, Foreign Minister, Finance Minister, Interior Minister and discussed some serious issues with the leaders of Pakistan.

During his meetings with Pakistani leaders and opinion formers in Islamabad and Karachi, Foreign Secretary said, “The new British Government is committed to continuing our relationship, exploring ways in which the UK and Pakistan could work even more closely together and listening to advice about the region as well as offering UK support. As Governments, Britain and Pakistan work closely together and with other partners, including the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, on our common interests in encouraging trade and prosperity, tackling extremism and supporting stability in Afghanistan.”

“I went with the objective of signalling that the new British government seeks a long term and close partnership with Pakistan and of course that includes good relations between the governments of the United Kingdom and Pakistan but it involves much more than that,” said the Foreign Secretary in his briefing on Monday, 27th of June after returning back from Pakistan.

Nearly a million British citizens are of Pakistani heritage and 10,000 Pakistanis study in British schools and universities. Over £1 billion /130 billion rupees worth of trade flows between the two countries each year along with hundreds of thousands of visitors travelling in both directions. Five newly-elected members of the British Parliament are of Pakistani origin. These living ties are the lifeblood of that partnership and explain much of its warmth and enduring nature. “The strong enduring ties that exist between the UK and Pakistan will continue to bind our countries together and we look forward to helping Pakistan achieve a better, more prosperous future for its citizens,” said Foreign Secretary.

Recollecting his visit, Foreign Secretary mentioned his meeting with Governor of Sind, Chief Minister and provincial leaders in Karachi and its business group. “In Karachi I met the Pakistan Business Council and the members of the Stock Exchange and saw something of the business life of Karachi,” Foreign secretary said and added, “I think this is a very positive element in the relationship between the United Kingdom and Pakistan and there are more of business opportunities than anybody has yet taken advantage of.”

United Kingdom is the second largest overseas investor in Pakistan. Speaking about the trade relationship, Foreign Secretary mentioned, “United Kingdom is already the second largest overseas investor in Pakistan. We do have a million pounds worth of trade flows between the two countries; but I think there is more potential in the relationship in Pakistan and in businesses too.”

Foreign Secretary also mentioned about the economic opportunities in Pakistan and he thinks that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) ‘will be doing more in the coming years to promote economic links and economic opportunities.’ “That was a very important dimension to the visit,” said Hague, M.P.

Foreign Secretary also met with media at the three press conferences and gave television interviews in Pakistan. “I want the people of Pakistan to know that the United Kingdom wants long term relationship and friendship between the United Kingdom and Pakistan,” said Foreign Secretary.

Foreign secretary also mentioned about some concerns about which they will work together. He said that we talked on counter-terrorism and about Afghanistan. He mentioned, “It’s too easy only to see danger; it is important to see opportunities as well. I want the people of Pakistan to know that we see that opportunities and relationships and that means building on that diasporas in this country which is about millions from that represents hundreds of thousands personal connection, family connections and sometimes business connections. That should be seen as opportunities by both countries and where there are successful people, whether they are good role model in the Diaspora we should be celebrate them in this country.”

Foreign Secretary mentioned about the long-term strategic partnership with Pakistan. “We are giving more development aid and we will also have committed in the next four years 665 million pounds of aid to Pakistan, making us the second largest bilateral donor to Pakistan. This is one of our largest aid programmes in the world. Our assistance also includes 250 million pounds for education, particularly primary education since literacy is obviously the major issue in Pakistan and 100 million pounds for humanitarian assistance and to support reconstruction in the conflict affected areas bordering Afghanistan. Our assistance in these areas is helping to meet critical needs for people displaced by the conflict and also helping those returning to their homes by repairing key bridges, rebuilding schools and getting businesses re-started,” mentioned Foreign Secretary.

Foreign Secretary also mentioned, “Speaking in Pakistan recently, Britain’s Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell said that he was determined to make Pakistan a higher priority, focusing heavily on education. This is the right choice, which I fully support. I have seen for myself the difference that can be made by helping young people get access to education and jobs and the people of Pakistan are the bright hope for its future.”

Foreign Secretary paid tribute “to the resilience of Pakistani people, the sacrifices they have made in the fighting violent extremism” and observed, “It often is not understood well enough in western countries. How much the armed forces of Pakistan have to do and how many thousands of their members have given their lives in that struggle against violent extremism. I hope I have got that message across on the visit to Pakistan.”

While supporting Pakistani democratic institutions, Foreign Secretary said, “We support those democratic institutions. We want them to succeed in future because that is good for Pakistan; it’s good for the stability, for democracy. Britain will support Pakistan in the difficult challenges it faces in building the strong, democratic and representative institutions on which prosperity and stability rest, and in engaging in further dialogue with its neighbours.”

To understand each other’s culture and traditions and to overcome misconceptions, Foreign Secretary said, “It is also important that we work over time to translate the bonds between our peoples into deeper understanding of each other’s culture and traditions and the overcoming of misconceptions which sometimes arise.”

“I welcome the work of the British Council in this area. Their schemes have helped build bridges between young people in 400 British and Pakistani schools. I am also pleased to see the initiatives of the UK-Pakistan foundation which will help foster non- governmental links, not least between our new generations,” said the Foreign Secretary.

War in Iraq was a mistake, Anas Sarwar, MP

War in Iraq was a mistake, MP Anas Sarwar

Dr. Mozammel Haque

The decision to go to war in Iraq is a mistake. Some politicians realised as early as 2003 that the war in Iraq is not a proper decision. “No people are perfect; no political party is perfect; and no government is perfect. Human beings make mistakes; political parties make mistakes; government makes mistakes. And I would say there is no bigger mistake by our previous Labour government than the war in Iraq. I opposed at that time; I protested at that time and I was against the war in Iraq and I disagreed on the decision of going to war in Iraq,” observed Anas Sarwar, in an exclusive interview with me.

Election on the Labour Party Leadership will be held very soon. Sarwar said, “I think by recognising that mistake we must make sure that we learn from that mistakes and we must make sure that it must not happen again. I think all our candidates should agree on that it was a wrong decision as I always said it was and that if we are going to move on as a political party and as a country everybody should accept that mistake and make sure that we learn the lesson that it should not happen in future.”

At around half-passed two in the afternoon of Monday, the 24th of May, 2010, some of the newly elected Members of the House of Commons took oath of allegiance to the Queen. Among them, there were Anas Sarwar, MP from the Glasgow Central, Shabana Mahmood, MP from the Birmingham Ladywood and Rushanara Ali, MP from the Bethnal Green & Bow constituency. They took oath on the Qur’an. MP Anas Sarwar made it a point to place his right hand on the Qur’an Shareef and started with saying Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim.

In front of MP Anas Sarwar were two extremely talented newly elected MPs, Shabana Mahmood from Birmingham Ladywood and Rushanara Ali of Bethnal Green and Bow. “One of the most proudest thing I would say that seeing too extremely talented sisters with headscarves and taking an oath on the Qur’an I must say it was incredibly happy moment for me and a pride moment for our country,” told me newly elected MP Anas Sarwar in an interview at the Portcullis House, Westminster, after the oath-taking ceremony.

Joyous and difficult moments
Sarwar won the elections from the Glasgow Central constituency. He not only increased the majority from 10,000 but also increased the turnout by 8 per cent. Speaking about his reaction after hearing his victory at the elections, Sarwar said, “There was personal joy and obviously joy for my hard team work which gave this result at Glasgow. It is also joyous seeing Shabana, Rushanara Sadiq, Khalid being elected and re-elected but at the same time there was some difficult moment that we knew that it was not going to be a very best of night for the Labour Party and we were sad to lose very talented people like Shahid Malik.”

Humanitarian crisis in Gaza
The world peace is the lost cow of humanity. Every political leader consciously or unconsciously realise that peace cannot be achieved in this world without peace in the Middle East. I wanted to know what newly elected Member of Parliament thinks about Palestine. “I first visited Palestine when I was just 12 years of age and I again visited in 2008 and I actually spent days in Gaza Strip. The situation is simply unacceptable. You have humanitarian crisis; you have economic crisis and you have political crisis. The humanitarian crisis is: 70% of the population are unemployed; 80% of the population is eating purely on UN Food programmes and two-third of the essential medicines that is sent by the World Health Organisations for the people of Gaza,” said Sarwar about the situation in Palestine. The urgent need of the humanity is not political rhetoric but “the end of the sieze and to open the tunnel to the Gaza Strip”, he said.

Destruction of infrastructure
People are talking about an independent Palestinian state. But an independent Palestinian state will only be viable when economic crisis will be solved. Every infrastructure of the Palestinians has been destroyed. Sarwar said, “Every infrastructure of the Palestinians whether it is the water lines, sewerage lines, electricity lines, phone lines are simply destroyed by the Israeli government and its forces. And if we are serious about making independent Palestinian state we must make investment, on the infrastructure but at the same time investing on the infrastructure; and we need to take young people forward to the next generation.”

Commitment for an Independent Palestinian state
Anas Sarwar said that he himself has been committed. He also mentioned that he is delighted that the former Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who emphasized about this commitment. David Miliband said that we want an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as capital with the right of return for the refugees and has to have on the pre-1967 borders, mentioned MP Sarwar.

“My promise to the people is: I will campaign tirelessly along with Muslim MPs and non-Muslim MPs and more importantly with the people of this country to recognise the justice is happening in the region and to make sure we can make that full independence a reality,” said Sarwar and added, “Until we have got justice in that region we could not get peace. And that is my commitment, my faith of just resolution for Palestinians.”

Sarwar on Afghanistan
Recently, the Foreign Secretary William Hague has visited Afghanistan and both the Foreign Secretary and the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, was talking about Afghanistan. I wanted to know what his comment on the British troops in Afghanistan is. Sarwar was in favour of withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan “as soon as practical and possible”. “We have to make sure that we are helping to rebuild Afghanistan and make Afghanistan a prosperous state and not play a negative role there. I would not say that we should immediately withdraw troops from Afghanistan. I would say as soon as practically possible leaving the Afghans to determine their own future exactly the same way as we are calling for the self-determination of the Palestinian people; exactly we are calling for the self-determination of the people of Kashmir. We also should recognise that it is up to the Afghan people to determine their own future.”

About Pakistan
Anas Sarwar was born and bred in Glasgow. He mentioned himself as a “Glasgow boy”; and he is “proud to be British”. But at the same time he said that I love Pakistan and I am proud that my mother country is Pakistan and I am proud that Pakistan where my heritage lies. The biggest power that the Pakistan has is its people; ex-Pakistanis never forgot Pakistan; they never lost of love for Pakistan and that is emphasized through charity and through links that are maintained with Pakistan.”

But at the same time Sarwar mentioned that we have to recognise that there are challenges for Pakistan. “In Pakistan, unfortunately, rich becomes richer and poor becomes poorer. This is simply unacceptable in the 21st century. Anybody in any country to be queuing for sugar, flour, wheat, bread or anything else; it is simply unacceptable,” said Sarwar.

Expatriate Pakistanis or the people of Pakistani heritage are leading in science, medicine, technology, IT and in every sector of life, mentioned Sarwar and said, “I think we need to put our heads together and we need to be working together . And what we can do here together obviously continue in the international world make sure investing in health, education programme and in Pakistan and make sure health to promote, better business links between the Pakistanis and British communities and making sure holding respect both for people of Pakistan and also Britain respect Pakistan and the best way of doing that is to as a Pakistanis because make no mistake; no government in this country would dare doing mischief in Pakistan. British do still have love for Pakistan.”

Glasgow City Council
Sarwar also mentioned about his own city. He said, “I am proud of my own city, the Glasgow City Council, which is under Labour administration, introduces and helps to double one double two service and in Pakistan emergency service.”

As I was conducting the interview with him, Parliamentarian Sarwar mentioned about “a delegation went from the Glasgow City Council to Pakistan looking at a recycling project, looking at a sewerage project, looking at infrastructure project, and looking at projects fast travel. We have to support public transport. I think we have lot of things to learn. British people have lot to learn from Pakistan and Pakistan will learn lots from Britain and we have to strengthen this relationship over the time and that is something which I promise I would to do.”

Faith School
Speaking about faith schools, Sarwar said, “I have no opposition to faith schools. I think it is acceptable if you have Catholic schools in UK, if you have Jewish schools in UK; then you have every right to have Muslim schools in the UK also. It is less significant what the title the school has; it is less about the faith the school comes from; what is more important is what the schools are teaching to the kids. Because the less our children have education, we can’t break those statistics or those cycles of underachievement I mentioned.”

Speaking about spending cuts and imposition of new tax, Sarwar mentioned that we have accepted that some cuts have to be made. I think we have to wait and see what happens with this current government. We, in the Labour benches, we will give the strong opposition to make sure that the investment in education and health and other key frontline services will continue.”

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the facebook
Sarwar said, “It is, first of all, completely unacceptable that anybody’s faith to be discredited or ridiculed in any way and I think the defamation and denigration of our beloved Prophet (peace be upon him) is unacceptable. But at the same time, it is for the Muslims not only in this country but in the entire world to stop to be reactive. Those people who instigate Islamophobia want us to be hyper-proactive reaction. We have every right to be sensitive, but we should be reactive with sense and measured manner and we have to ensure that we are above reactionary. I think our approach should be measured approach, should be organisational approach.”

Ban on Burkha and headscarves
Europe wants to ban burkha, hijab and headscarves. Britain is the only country which protected the women’s rights to wear Hijab. “We are proud of UK. We have protected the Hijab,” said Sarwar and mentioned about those countries which want to ban, “They think Muslims are threat to them. I think it is important that we should show that actually we are not threat to Europe, we are not threat to the West; Muslims are friends of Europe, friends of West and we are going to make friends. I think the best advice I will say to the people who are most worried is to engage in the system; engage in the process and through democratic means.”