Iran, Pakistan to sign MoU to enhance parliamentary cooperation

ISLAMABAD: The head of Iran-Pakistan friendship group and member of Iranian Parliament said Tehran and Islamabad are determined to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance parliamentary cooperation.

In an interview with IRNA, Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani said Speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly of Pakistan Sardar Ayaz Sadiq is scheduled to travel to Iran in January to sign the MoU with Iranian Speaker Ali Larijani. He said that strong cooperation between parliaments of Iran and Pakistan can also help strengthening ties between the two neighboring states.

The lawmaker said for past decades parliaments of Iran and Pakistan have been enjoying strong relations. ''Pakistani Chairman of Senate and Speaker National Assembly of Pakistan Sardar Ayaz Sadiq visited Iran this year and Iran Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani visited Pakistan to participate in Speakers Conference in Islamabad.'' He also said two parliamentary delegations from Iran will visit Pakistan very soon.

"During the previous meetings, Iran and Pakistani parliamentarians explored avenues to further enhance their cooperation. We focused more on those issues which have been given less attention like economic and trade ties."

During the visit of Iranian speaker, Farahani added, a representative of Central Bank of Iran was in his delegation for the resumption of banking ties with Pakistan.

''Representatives of both Iranian and Pakistani central banks had useful discussion in the presence of the speakers of the two countries." Iran and Pakistan are heading towards taking some major steps on border management.

Speaker of Pakistani Balochistan visited Iran this year and definitely we will also visit Pakistani Balochistan very soon. There is need to enhance more cooperation between Zahedan and Quetta cities," he added.

The Iranian MP said discussions are underway for the visits of Chairman of Iranian Parliament's Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security Alaeddin Boroujerdi to Gwadar and his Pakistani counterpart to Chabahar. Farahani said during his Pakistan visit he also met the Pakistani Parliamentary group to further enhance cooperation between the parliaments of the two friendly countries.