AJK uplift with China's help Pak right: Nawaz

BEIJING (APP) – Pakistan has the right to carry out development activities in Kashmir and establish economic cooperation with China for its development, visiting former prime minister of Pakistan Mohammad Nawaz Sharif has said here.
PML-N Quaid made these remarks appeared in China Daily while referring an earlier report from India, which criticised China’s involvement in ongoing projects in Azad Kashmir area.
“The criticism is not fair. It is the basic right and requirement for Pakistani in the Kashmir area to benefit from such projects and no one can deprive them of these rights,” Sharif said.
According to the website of the Council on Foreign Relations, there are about 10,000 Chinese workers engaged in 120 projects in Pakistan. Chinese investment there - including heavy engineering, power generation, mining, and telecommunications - was valued at $4 billion in 2007 and is expected to rise to $15 billion during this year. “Pakistan and India have long outstanding issues that need to be solved, and we are thankful for China’s support for Pakistan on the Kashmir issue,” the newspaper quoted Nawaz as saying.
The opposition leader added that India and Pakistan remained engaged in an “unnecessary and unproductive” arms race in the past 60 years and both have spent billions of dollars on military hardware instead of diverting this amount on social welfare of their people.
He stressed that China is the “most reliable friend” of Pakistan and the “all-weather” friendship between the two countries is “time-tested” and will remain strong.