ISLAMABAD, April 26: The Foreign Office confirmed on Friday that concurrence of seven governments had been obtained for voting by overseas Pakistanis there.

Responding to a question at his weekly news briefing here on Friday, Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had short-listed nine countries where polling could be held.

The spokesman said concurrence from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom had been received while response from the United States and the United Arab Emirates was awaited.

He said the issue of voting by overseas Pakistanis was under consideration in the Supreme Court and once a decision was taken, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its missions abroad would extend all possible assistance for the conduct of polling.

Answering another question, he said instructions had been issued to the Pakistan embassy in Baghdad to extend complete assistance to any of the Pakistani pilgrims stranded on Iraqi border due to elections in that country. He said the pilgrims should check with Iraqi embassy in Islamabad before leaving for Iraq.

The spokesman said there were no terror camps in Pakistan. About arrest of some British Muslims plotting terror attacks and allegations that they either received training in Pakistan or were about to, he said terrorists were being tried in different countries and they made different statements.

About trilateral meeting of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States in Brussels, he said it was in continuation with the high-level contacts between the three countries.

The countries agreed that a sustainable reconciliation process was essential for achieving peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The meeting also agreed to pursue political, security and economic cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The spokesman said Pakistan took the opportunity to reaffirm its support for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process of peace and reconciliation. —APP

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