KARACHI: Pakistan has expressed support for a “historic” call by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to admit the state of Palestine as a full member, the Foreign Office (FO) in Islamabad said on Friday, urging the UN Security Council to decide the matter “favorably.”

The UNGA last week overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it was qualified to join and recommending the UNSC “reconsider the matter favorably.” The vote by the 193-member General Assembly was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member — a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state — after the United States vetoed it in the UN Security Council last month.

“Pakistan supports the historic call made by the UN general assembly made at the 10th emergency session to admit the state of Palestine as a full member,” FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters at a weekly press briefing.

“The resolution determined that the state of Palestine is qualified for membership of the UN and recommended the security council to decide the matter favorably.”

Baloch said the UNSC had been provided another opportunity to lift its objections to the admission of Palestine to the UN and “restore the credibility of the assurances that have been given in support of the two-state solution.”

The Palestinian push for full UN membership comes seven months into a war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and as Israel is expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the UN considers illegal.

Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza has killed more than 35,000 people, mostly civilians after the war broke on Oct 7 when Hamas fighters stormed across the border into Israel.

Pakistan does not recognize the state of Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on internationally agreed parameters and the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have resolved to accelerate progress on major connectivity projects and strengthen cooperation in multiple fields, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said on Friday, amid an increase in bilateral engagements with longtime ally Beijing to boost foreign investment in Pakistan.
The understanding to this effect was reached during Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar’s ongoing visit to China, where he met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other top officials.
Beijing has been one of Islamabad’s most reliable foreign partners in recent years and has invested over $65 billion in energy and infrastructure projects as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The project, part of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, aims to connect China to the Arabian Sea via a network of roads, railways, pipelines and ports in Pakistan, and help Islamabad expand and modernize its economy.
“The two sides will work together to forge an upgraded version of CPEC by jointly building a growth corridor, a livelihood enhancing corridor, an innovation corridor, a green corridor by aligning them with Pakistan’s development framework and priorities,” said Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, a Pakistan foreign office spokeswoman, while briefing reporters on Dar’s visit.
“Together we will accelerate progress on major connectivity projects, including upgradation of ML-1 (Main Line-1), the Gwadar port, realignment of KKH (Karakoram Highway) phase-2, strengthen cooperation in agriculture, industrial parks, mining and information technology.”
The $6.8 billion ML-1 project is aimed at upgrading and dualizing the 1,872-kilometer existing railway track from the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi till Peshawar in the country’s northwest, while the port in Pakistan’s southwestern Gwadar city lies at the heart of CPEC.
Dar’s visit comes amid Pakistan’s recent push for foreign investment, with Islamabad seeing a flurry of high-level exchanges from diplomats and business delegations in recent weeks from Saudi Arabia, Japan, Azerbaijan, Qatar and other countries.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said the premier had invited a Chinese research and investment firm, MCC Tongsin Resources, to invest in Pakistan’s mining sector and assured it of “maximum facilitation.” The statement came after Sharif’s meeting with a delegation of MCC Tongsin Resources, led by Chairman Wang Jaichen, in the federal capital of Islamabad.
“The government is taking steps on priority basis to increase foreign investment in the country,” Sharif was quoted as saying by his office. “In order to increase the exports of Pakistan, investment for the extraction of minerals, their processing and export will be fully facilitated.”
Sharif has vowed to rid the country of its chronic macroeconomic crisis through foreign investment and efficient handling of the economy.