MANCHESTER, Sept 23: Pakistan and its tribulations assumed centre stage on a number of occasions at the two-day annual Labour Party conference which began here on Monday.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in his speech on the inaugural day asked his audience to think of Britain’s responsibilities towards Pakistan.

“And let me say this as well, I know that this conference will join me in the resolve that I expressed to President Zardari yesterday on the telephone. We will stand with Pakistan, people of Pakistan as they fight this evil and we will stand with them shoulder to shoulder as long as it takes,” he declared.

Reminding the Labour delegates that over 800,000 British citizens had heritage in Pakistan, Mr Miliband said the entire British nation mourned with the people of Pakistan in their days of terrible loss.

“We reach out to those Britons of Pakistani origin and we say to them you are our friends, our relatives, our neighbours, our fellow citizens and we grieve with you too,” he added.

Reiterating Britain’s determination to pursue the terrorists with military means as well, the British foreign secretary said that in Afghanistan the alternative to a democratic government, properly elected, was a Taliban government not elected at all, overrunning the country and providing a safe space for Al Qaeda, “That’s why our values of democracy matter in the modern world.”

Pakistan High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan hosted a reception for the Labour delegates on Monday evening at which he spoke at length about the commitment and determination of the two countries to work together for peace, security and fighting terrorism and extremism.

Prominent among those who attended the reception were Mr Miliband, Defence Secretary Des Browne, Junior Minister Shahid Malik, former foreign secretary Sir Gerald Kaufmann, MPs Khalid Mahmood, Neil Gerald, Mike Gapes, Martin Salter, Brian Iddon, Virendar Sharma, and Lord Clarke.

The High Commissioner spoke of the Saturday’s bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad and said his country was paying a very heavy price for the war against the twin scourge of terrorism and extremism.

Speaking about the recent visit of President Asif Ali Zardari to the UK and his meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he said the two leaders also appreciated the contribution of a million strong British citizens of Pakistani origin in strengthening friendship between the two countries.Mr Hasan recalled the adoption of Kashmir resolution by the Labour Party in its annual conference in 1995 which came to be known as ‘Brighton Declaration’.

He said the Labour resolution had categorically declared that after coming into power, the party would work for the solution of the longest standing unresolved Kashmir problem according to the principle of right of self-determination sanctioned by the United Nations.

“That promise alas remains unfulfilled,” he pointed out.