The European Union (EU) Ambassador to Pakistan Androulla Kaminara called on Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi and discussed matters of mutual interests and emphasized to increase trade ties between both sides, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.

The EU top envoy to Pakistan Androulla said that Pakistan was an important country in terms of trade and the EU wanted to excel bilateral relations with Pakistan, especially in textile.

Ch Pervaiz Elahi said that the EU and Pakistan bilateral relations would strengthen with exchange visits of parliamentary delegations of both the countries. He said the EU envoy’s visit would fortify both countries' relations and cooperation between the two sides have been going on since 2004 because the EU is the second most important trade partner of Pakistan.

Pervaiz Elahi said that textiles plays a vital role in Pakistan's exports to European countries which is in fact 75.2 percent of Pakistan's total exports in 2020. On the other hand, Pakistan's imports from the EU mainly consist of machinery and transport equipment 33.5 percent and chemicals 22.2 percent in 2020.

He also highlighted India’s grave human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir and said that Kashmir was the bone of contention between Pakistan and India and urged the EU to play its role in resolution of the dispute. “Pakistan wants peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute while civilian and military leadership along with Pakistani nation is united on the Kashmir dispute,” the Punjab Assembly speaker said.

“Human rights violations are at its peak in Occupied Kashmir and the international community must take notice of these grave violations,” Pervaiz Elahi said. 

Sharing Punjab Assembly feats, Pervaiz Elahi said that Punjab Assembly passed a record 90 bills. He said that the government was also taking steps on investment, economy, tourism and provision of medical facilities.

Pervaiz Elahi also said that as a Chief Minister of Punjab, his party established the Ministry of Minority Affairs for the first time in history and allocated funds for it and also gave property ownership rights to slum dwellers. The Punjab Assembly speaker said that during his government tenure, he restored and repaired churches and even returned minority educational institutions to churches.

 Reporter Umar Aslam