HONG KONG: Chinese Foreign Minister, Marshal Chen Yi, said tonight [Oct 23] that China would stand with Pakistan in the struggle of Kashmiris to achieve self-determination, Radio Peking reported.

According to the radio, monitored here, he was speaking in Peking at a banquet in honour of the visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister, Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada.

Marshal Chen Yi said, “You can [rest] assured that in preserving your national independence and opposing external expansion and aggression and in the struggle of the Kashmiris to achieve self-determination, the Chinese Government and people will stand together with you in future as in the past.”

In reply Mr Pirzada said: Chinese support of Pakistan in its opposition to aggression is an important essential for stability. He said Pakistan treasured Chinese friendship and would never forget the assistance rendered during its time of need.

In his speech, the Chinese Foreign Minister said the friendship between the two countries did not grow in a hot house “but had stood the test of storms”. He claimed that the “United States, Soviet revisionists and Indian reactionaries” had tried to break up this friendship but without success.

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies from Lahore,] the Governor of West Pakistan, Mr Mohammad Musa, has directed the Commissioners to deal with the situation arising from power shortage on a war footing to minimise its adverse effects on agriculture and industrial production.

In a Circular letter, the Governor emphasised the need for strict economy in the use of power and its even distribution for industry and tube well pumping throughout night and day to avoid bunching of demand during peak hours in excess of available capacity.

The Governor has directed the Commissioners to take effective steps to mobilise public opinion for bringing about a reduction in power consumption and to task all the tiers of Basic Democracies to help them.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2016