June 29, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 24, 1429

WASHINGTON, June 28: A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation in the US House of Representative for creating Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Ambassador Husain Haqqani told a meeting in Washington.

Soon after Mr Haqqani announced the move at a meeting of Pakistani physicians in Washington, a State Department official told journalists that the Bush administration welcomes the proposed legislation because it will help stabilise an otherwise volatile region.

Goods produced at ROZs will have duty-free access to US markets. Policy makers in Washington and Islamabad hope that this will encourage investors to invest in the tribal zone, creating jobs and new opportunities for the people living there.

A similar bill was moved in the US Senate in March.

In the House, representatives, Chris Van Hollen, Peter Hoekstra, Sander Levin, Mark Steven Kirk, Gary Ackerman and Sheila Jackson-Lee are co-sponsored of the bill.

Welcoming the move, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey hoped the ROZs will make a valuable contribution to regional growth, prosperity and stability.

“Economic opportunities generated by ROZs constitute a key component of our long-term strategy to counter conditions in which terrorism, drug trafficking, and other activities threatening US and global security thrive,” he said.

But this was not the only news revealed during the three-day annual gathering of the Association of Physicians of Pakistani descent in North America.

Aitzaz Ahsan, who leads the lawyers’ movement, used this gathering to announce that the lawyers will launch another long march by September.

Senator Tom Harkin, who chairs the powerful Senate committee on agriculture, indicated that if elected Barack Obama will not oppose the construction of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.