ISLAMABAD, 18 October 2004 — The government of Pakistan announced compensations for the Chinese engineers who suffered in the rescue operation recently.
The dead surveyor Wang Peng’s family would be given $100,000 while the rescued engineer would be given $50,000.
Deputy Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khusro Bakhtair, expressed deep sorrow to the family of Wang Peng and said that the purpose of the mastermind of the Chinese abductors was to destabilize Pak-China relations. The hunt for the alleged mastermind Abdullah Mahsud had been intensified in the tribal border areas, the minister added.
The two countries were cooperating with each other in the fight against terrorism and Pakistan was working for the protection of all the Chinese currently working in Pakistan, Khusro added.
Meanwhile, China’s state counsellor and former Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan is here as head of a 20-member delegation for top-level consultations aimed at boosting bilateral cooperation.
During his two-day visit here, Tang will meet Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.
His meeting with Aziz was slated for yesterday and the call on the president was scheduled for the following day. Today he will also hold delegation-level talks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Terming it a very important visit for Pakistan, a senior Foreign Ministry official said on Saturday that it was part of the ongoing high-level contact between China and Pakistan. “Talks between the two sides would focus on ongoing projects as well as the new mega projects ranging from infrastructure to science and technology to space,” the official said.
The scheduled visit comes on the heels of the kidnapping episode of two Chinese engineers in South Waziristan.
According to a Chinese source although the primary purpose of the visit was to further strengthen and encourage the longstanding Sino-Pakistan friendship, the concerns of the Chinese government regarding security of its nationals working in Pakistan would also figure in the discussions here.
The head of the delegation is expected to seek firm assurances from Pakistan’s top leadership for foolproof security of all Chinese nationals living in Pakistan.
Members of the delegation include head of a key Chinese monetary institution and government representatives mainly from the ministries of foreign affairs and commerce, it is learnt.
Tang is, seen in the government circles here as a “great friend of Pakistan”. He is considered to be among the pioneers of the new Chinese foreign policy in the mid-1980s.
