ISLAMABAD  -  Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has underscored the significance attached by Pakistan to fraternal ties with the Muslim world, particularly with the countries of the MENA region. 

He said these ties were anchored in mutual trust, common understand­ing and close cooperation on bilat­eral as well as regional matters of common interest. The prime minis­ter said this while talking to the res­ident Ambassadors of Muslim coun­tries from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region over a lunch at the PM House here yesterday. 

The meeting was attended by the Ambassadors of Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lib­ya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The Foreign Minister, Secretary to the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary also attended.

The Prime Minister shared Paki­stan’s perspective on a number of issues, particularly the deteriorat­ing human rights and humanitari­an situation in the occupied Pales­tinian territories.

Other challenges confronting the Muslim world such as Islamophobia were also discussed. The Prime Min­ister emphasized the need for the Muslim Ummah to continue to work closely and collectively, especially through the OIC, to deal with these complex issues. 

The Prime Minister praised the Ambassadors for their efforts to forge stronger ties between Islam­abad and their respective capitals. 

The Ambassadors thanked the Prime Minister and reiterated their support towards advancing bilat­eral relations with Pakistan, which played a key role in the Muslim world. Meanwhile, the prime min­ister, while chairing a meeting to re­view progress on the Special Tech­nology Zones, said the government is taking steps to increase foreign in­vestment in the Information Tech­nology sector. He directed to chalk out necessary policies to attract IT experts from across the world for the development and promotion of IT sector in Pakistan.

The PM said the IT sector can play a key role in the country’s econo­my as Pakistan has a lot of potential to progress in this field. The meet­ing approved the restructuring of the Budget and Finance, Audit and Technical Committees of the Board of Governors of the Special Technol­ogy Zones Authority. The meeting also approved drafts of the Author­ity’s Licensing Framework, Author­ity Procedures and Fee Regulations to the Technical Committee.