KASUR, Aug 10: Pakistan is under no pressure to send troops to Iraq or accept Israel.

This was stated by Foreign Minister Mian Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri while talking to newsmen at a reception arranged in his honour by PML-Q leader Amanullah Ansari here on Sunday.

He said the Kashmir issue should be solved keeping in view the wishes of the Kashmiri people and in accordance with the UN resolutions. He said that Pakistan was a peaceful country and believed in dialogue with India in resolving the Kashmir issue. He said the European Commission also proposed peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue, admitting that durable peace in the region could not be possible without keeping in view the wishes of the Kashmiris.

Mr Kasuri told newsmen that work was in progress for the provision of gas to Kasur while work on dualizing the Lahore-Kasur Road would be started soon.

He said that Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali had promised to visit Kasur shortly.

He further said that the district government had also spent millions of rupees on different projects, including health, education and construction of roads.

The foreign minister said that he would visit Afghanistan next month on the invitation of the Afghan foreign minister for further cementing relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said Pakistan had looked after four million Afghan refugees which was also acknowledged and appreciated on several occasions by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. However, Mr Kasuri denied that Pakistani troops had ever crossed into the Afghan territory.

He also visited the house of the UC No 5 Nazim to offer fateha for his father. MPA Malik Ahmad Saeed, District Naib Nazim Mian Sana Khaliq Karimi and other PML-Q leaders were also present on the occasion.