Islamabad—A Member of National Assembly, Sheikh Rohail Asghar has welcomed the visit of President Asif Ali Zardari to Iran adding that Pakistan must cooperate with Iran in energy sector irrespective of pressures exerted by Americans. Sheikh Rohail Asghar who is also a member of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has said that Iran and Pakistan have a long history of cordial ties and Iran has always helped Pakistan in difficult times.
“Pakistan has always enjoyed strong relations with Iran,” the PML-N leader told IRNA in an interview. President Asif Ali Zardari is undertaking a day-long official visit to Iran on Saturday to discuss mutual and regional developments. President Zardari during his visit will meet Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and his President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik will also accompany President Zardari during his Tehran visit. Sheikh Rohail Asghar said that Pakistan must enhance its cooperation with Iran and abandon its friendship with US. ‘US is the common enemy of both Iran and Pakistan,’ he said. The politician urged Pakistani government to cooperate with Iran in energy sector irrespective of pressures exerted by the West. ‘We must quickly respond to Iran’s offers of electricity and natural gas,’ he added.
Sheikh Rohail Asghar was of the view that Iran and Pakistan are two brotherly neighbors. ‘We share same sentiments for each other,’ he said. “The momentum of relationship was not affected even by the change of governments in Pakistan, where the successive governments attached high priority to establishing bilateral relations with Iran,” he said. The parliamentarian said that Pakistani leadership should learn from Iran how to resist the western pressure.
“Now Iran due to the struggle of its nation has been able to achieve the status of a respectable nation around the world,” he said. The political leader opined that other nations should learn from the struggle of the Iranian nation. It will be President Zardari’s second meeting with Presidemt Ahmedinejad in Tehran in a period of three weeks. The last meeting took place when Zardari, attended a two-day international conference against terrorism in Tehran on June 25.—NNI