QUETTA, Aug 17: Pakistan’s Ambassador to US Jahangir Ashraf Qazi has said the relations between Islamabad and Washington were strengthening with the passage of time and President Musharraf would again visit America soon to discuss bilateral and international matters.

Speaking at a luncheon hosted in his honour by PML-Q provincial secretary Senator Malik Sarwar Khan Kakar here on Saturday, the Pakistani diplomat said that it was the common perception that Americans extended friendship to other nations in time of need only.

However, he said, Pakistan’s relations with the US have been improving steadily, something which did not support this view.

The Pakistan ambassador claimed that the announcement by the Washington administration following President Musharraf-President Bush meeting that it will release 1.5 billion dollars for defence requirements and a similar amount for development purposes reflected America’s sentiments towards Islamabad.

He observed this announcement showed that America wanted Pakistan to build up its economy so that it travelled on the road to progress, and ameliorated the lot of its people.

Mr Jahangir Ashraf conceded that India had a lobby amongst the Senators in American Congress that created hurdles for better relations between Pakistan and America. However, Pakistan’s cooperation with Washington had changed the situation in favour of Pakistan.

He stated that President Bush’s enthusiastic welcome to President Musharraf at Camp David was a sign that bilateral cooperation at the international level had brought the two countries to a better mutual understanding.

Ashraf Qazi disclosed that President Musharraf will again visit America. Besides, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali will also be visiting Washington in October.

Mr Qazi, who hails from the Pishin district of the province, said he always attempted to represent Pakistan and Balochistan in the right spirit in America.

Earlier, Senator Malik Sarwar Khan Kakar urged the diplomat to help get funds for Balochistan in order to get it out of a state of backwardness.

Documentation: Supreme Court Judge Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary while taking action on a petition filed by an industrialist, Abdul Sattar Lasi, regarding auction of his property by a bank here on Friday allowed completion of the auction process but ordered postponement of its documentation till Aug 25.

Mr Lasi had also filed a petition in BHC in this regard that issued stay order against auction of the properties, but bounded him to furnish surety bond of Rs500 million in the court within a period of two weeks.

The petitioner failed to do so as a result of which the concerned bank published a notice about the auction of his property in Dawn on Aug 13.

The judge observed that the notice of the application has already been given for Aug 13, therefore, keeping in view the urgency the court directs let the process of selling of the property as per conditions appeared in notice be completed but directed the bank to postpone the documentation till Aug 25, the next date of hearing of the case.

PROTEST ANNOUNCED: The Balochistan Professors and Lecturers Association has announced that the teachers of the Government Science College Quetta will not take the classes from Monday until the administration initiate an action against an students body representatives who it said had insulted the college principal.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, association President Professor Hafiz Abdul Hayee Baloch regretted that neither the director of education nor the administration contacted the principal despite having information about the ugly incident.

According to him, two representatives of the Pakhtunkhwa Students Organization, Rehmatullah and Jamil, on Saturday asked the principal to accept the admission forms of some candidates after the passage of the last date of admissions— July 30, 2003. And when the principal refused, they pushed him out of the office and had the college closed forcibly.

Replying to a question, Professor Baloch said the principal had not registered FIR against the said students and only informed the education director and the local administration.

If the government did not take any action against, the lecturers body would have no option except to expand the protest to other institutions, he threatened.