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Indo-Pak power deal will improve ties, says Pak minister

Pakistani Population Minister Abida Hussain has voiced her government's keenness to sell the country's surplus power to India, insisting that such a transaction would be for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

Replying to questions after her speech at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Wednesday night, she said India's expressed intention to buy power from Pakistan was a ''very fruitful step for our part of the world.''

''We would like to believe it will happen. It can happen,'' she said, adding, ''I cannot think of anything better than this in the field of mutual benefit of the two countries.''

Hussain, who is now a member of the Nawaz Sharief cabinet, had been her country's ambassador to the United States for 17 months beginning November 1993.

Currently, she is on a tour of the US to mop up funds for her country's family planning programme. She said India and Pakistan could co-operate in this field as they both had a population problem.

Resumption of trade, she said, could be of mutual benefit to the countries for which specific areas should be identified. It was also useful to explore new areas.

Hussain said both countries suffered huge revenue losses because of smuggling across their borders. ''Containment of these losses could be beneficial to both governments,'' she added.

UNI