QUETTA: President of Iran Hassan Rouhani would visit Islamabad soon because Iran valued its ties with Pakistan and wanted to strengthen relations, the Governor of Iranian province Sistan Baluchestan, Aaqai Ali Osat Hashemi, said here on Friday.

He was speaking during a meeting with Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch.

The governor is here with a delegation to hold talks with the provincial government leaders on boosting border trade, investment and trade relations and other issues. A meeting between officials of the two countries will be held on Saturday.

Mr Hashemi said that Iran wanted to improve relations with Pakistan, ignoring political pressures. “Tehran is making serious efforts in this direction,” he said and urged Islamabad to take effective reciprocal steps.

Referring to the Pak-Iran gas pipeline, he said that Pakistani and Iranian authorities had discussed the project in Islamabad last month. “Things are moving in right direction.”

Mr Hashemi said that Iran wanted to supply electricity and gas to Balochistan and invited Dr Malik to visit Tehran.

The chief minister thanked Iran for supplying 70MW electricity to Gwadar district and said 40 MW could be added to the system.

He requested the Iranian governor to speed up the process of supplying 100 MW to Gwadar and 1,000MW to Balochistan, which would resolve energy crisis in the province.

He suggested measures to boost trade between Iran and Balochistan and said that Federal Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafiq had announced that a cargo train would be run between Quetta and Zahidan to facilitate traders of the two countries.

Published in Dawn January 10th , 2014

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