Daily Times

The chief US diplomat for South Asian affairs, Alice Wells, on Monday said that the issue of illegal Pakistani immigrants in the United States had been resolved to a great extent.

She made the comment during a meeting with Interior Minister Brig (r) Ijaz Ahmad Shah. “We appreciate the Pakistan government’s cooperation on the matter,” Wells said, while adding that her government wants to come up with a strong system [for dealing with illegal immigrants] that can be used in the future.

Welcoming the idea of developing a system to deal with illegal immigrants, Shah said that a stronger system to verify travel documents had already been created. He further told Wells that a system had also been created for the monitoring of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs). “The organisations that we have reservations about are given the chance to present their perspective,” Shah said.

The two sides also discussed Pakistan’s progress on matters raised by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). “It is heartening to see that Pakistan’s government has made significant progress on these matters and that too in a short time,” Wells said.

Wells arrived in Islamabad on Sunday – after wrapping up her tour of India and Sri Lanka – for a four-day visit to Pakistan centred around talks on bilateral issues.

Although Wells’ visit comes immediately after Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s trip to Washington, her trip had been planned prior.

Sources say that Wells is expected to hold further meetings with representatives from Pakistan’s political and military leadership to talk about several issues, including Pak-US ties, the Afghan reconciliation process, ongoing tensions in the region and Indian atrocities in Occupied Kashmir.

She will also speak at a think tank and engage with members of civil society on what the US State Department calls “issues of bilateral and regional concern”.

According to a diplomatic source, the US diplomat is expected to follow up on the foreign minister’s discussions in Washington where he met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser Robert O’ Brien, and Under Secretary of Defence John Rood.

The foreign minister recently concluded a three-day visit to the United States – the third leg of his mission to defuse tensions in the Middle East – after having already visited Tehran and Riyadh as part of Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts to ease tensions in the region.

Meanwhile, Alice Wells opened talks in Pakistan on Monday on bilateral and regional matters, focusing on economic cooperation.

Wells met Adviser to Prime Minister of Pakistan for Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood in Islamabad on the first day of her official meetings.

“The US is eager to increase the trade potential between our two nations. Wells is of the opinion that agriculture is one sector where immediate progress can be made,” Dawood said in a series of Twitter posts after the meeting.

He said the assistant secretary handed over some suggestions on the utilisation of general system of preferences which the Ministry of Commerce of Pakistan will examine and hold appropriate discussions with the US administration.

“She [Wells] appreciated the role of several prominent US companies working very successfully in Pakistan for a long time, & assured keen interest of several others to come here. This will further strengthen Pak-US economic & trade relationship,” Dawood further said.

The US Embassy in Islamabad said on Sunday that Wells will “discuss progress on various issues in our growing relationship.”

The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Wells will also hold more meetings in foreign, finance and interior ministries over the next two days. Pakistani leaders want the US should now focus on normalising bilateral relations with Pakistan as the U.S. had been only talking to Islamabad only on solution to the Afghan problem.

Qureshi urged American officials in Washington to withdraw its travel advisory for Pakistan. The US keeps on issuing advisories to its nationals and in majority asking them to avoid travelling to Pakistan in view of security situation.

The U.S. has also not yet restored security assistance for Pakistan suspended in 2018 over claims that Pakistan has not taken action against the militant groups, the charges denied by Pakistan.