ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minster on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz stated that India had always been the chief concern of Pakistan’s foreign policy.
Sources said that Sartaj was briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on Monday. He told members of the committee that India has seven times area than Pakistan, yet the bi-lateral relations have remained bad since their independence because of the Kashmir issue. “To face India with determination for the past 60 years, based on our principles is an important achievement,” he said. “For that very reason, our country became a security state,”; he added.
The adviser also said that after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Muslims were attacked as a community and the sparks flew from Afghanistan into Pakistan. One of the members of the committee Muzaffar Hussain Shah said that Pak-American groups were working in the United States and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should make use of these groups for lobbying. Relations between Pakistan and US deteriorated last month after an American drone strike killed former Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour. Pakistan protested by calling drone strike an attack on its sovereignty.
