Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar on Tuesday calling the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) a “wonderful gift” of China to Pakistan, said that his country was committed to taking the project to the next level to deepen cooperation in the fields of agriculture, industrialization, renewable energy and others. The deputy prime minister in his remarks at the International Conference “China at 75: A Journey of Progress, Transformation and Global Leadership” said that being the symbol of China-Pakistan cooperation, CPEC helped uplift the country’s energy infrastructure to address the load-shedding woes of the people. He said the government was taking action to materialise the Chinese offer of sending 1,000 students to China for training in agricultural technology. He said that Pakistan deeply valued China’s support in addressing long-standing issues including Kashmir and Palestine and reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering support to the One-China policy. He said that being time-tested friends, both China and Pakistan supported each other in all circumstances whether they were natural disasters, economic disruptions, or geopolitical shifts. Lauding China’s development journey, Deputy Prime Minister Dar said that over the past 75 years, China, despite leg pulling from certain parts of the globe, unprecedentedly achieved a milestone through a “light-speed” and was also contributing to a better world. Citing the commitment and hard work of the Chinese leadership and the people, he expressed the hope that China would become the biggest economy in due course. He said from space exploration to artificial intelligence, medical science, green development and cutting-edge technology, China had achieved a massive transformation to become an economy with over $17 trillion GDP. Ishaq Dar also appreciated the Chinese contribution to peace and stability at global political and economic landscape besides strengthening the role of multilateral diplomacy. He told the gathering that after a hiatus of 27 years, Pakistan had successfully hosted a mega event of SCO CHG meeting which drew admiration from the participating leaders including Chinese and Russian premiers. On the issue of Dr Aafia, the deputy prime minister highlighted the government’s efforts to persuade the American leadership for pardon which could not bear fruit. He said Prime Minister Shehbaz sent a letter to the US President requesting to pardon Dr Aafia on humanitarian grounds as the US presidents usually grant certain pardons before relinquishing the office. However, he said a three-member committee had been formed to meet the US parliamentarians to lobby in favour of her pardon, release, and sending her back to Pakistan. Coming to unabated Israel’s barbarism in Gaza, he said that Pakistan was one of the rare countries which spoke vocally in favour of the Palestinian people and called for an immediate end to genocide, and implementation of the UNSC resolutions and ICJ rulings. He said 48, 000 innocent Palestinian people have been killed with the majority of them being women and children and another 80,000 injured. Expressing concerns over the attacks in Lebanon and Iran, he said Pakistan had sent 10 big consignments of relief goods to Gaza and had started hosting Palestinian medical students in Pakistan’s public and private medical colleges to make them complete their education.