ISLAMABAD, Sept 16: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday ruled out the possibility of starting trade with Israel. Speaking at a press conference in the Parliament House, he said the purpose of Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri’s meeting with his Israeli counterpart was only ‘engagement’.

“At present there is no possibility of starting trade with Israel. There is no such policy (under consideration),” Mr Aziz said.

“There is no harm in engagement if the cause of Palestine is served. Interfaith harmony is a good thing.”

He also rejected the suggestion that the meeting would pave the way for formally recognizing Israel with whom very few Muslim countries had diplomatic relations.

“We will only recognize Israel when an independent state of Palestine comes into existence. This is the stance of the OIC and Pakistan also adheres to it,” he added.

About the National Finance Commission (NFC) award, Mr Aziz said he had held an informal meeting on Thursday and expressed the hope that a ‘correct’ formula will be found.

“All the provinces will get their due,” he added.

“The award will have to be calculated after taking out the defence expenditure, debt servicing, and expenses for running the government. It will be decided according to the resources available with the government.”

He said the country had suffered a loss of Rs70 billion after withdrawing the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) on oil products.

“But still the petrol prices in Pakistan are lower in the region when compared with India and Bangladesh. Even the UAE has announced a raise of 32 per cent.”—APP

Our Correspondent Ahmed Hassan adds: He did not agree with a questioner that the Pakistan-Israel contact was established without taking parliament into confidence, adding that parliament was free to discuss anything it wanted.

He dispelled the suggestion that the Musharraf-Manmohan meeting had failed in taking the peace process forward, saying “we want to live with India in peace and whenever such meetings take place the process of normalization is moved forward”.

Mr Aziz said that Pakistan desired to resolve all issues with India, including Kashmir, through dialogue and the process was on track. He added that in the near future he will also be meeting his Indian counterpart on the sidelines of Saarc summit in Dhaka to take the process ahead.

About the ongoing treasury-opposition tussle on the question of presiding officer in Senate, he claimed that the explanation provided by leader of the house Wasim Sajjad was substantive and exposed the opposition’s position on technical grounds.

As far as the election of deputy chairman of Senate was concerned, he said the process had been put in motion and will be completed very soon.

When told that some treasury MPs wanted him to take over PML leadership, he said: “PML is in hands of good leadership and all of us seek his guidance.”

On government-opposition relations, he said that despite some element of bitterness there was an atmosphere of complete harmony and reconciliation with the opposition parties as he continuously kept in touch with top opposition leaders.

He said the main reason behind lack of quorum in the lower house of parliament a few days back was involvement of lawmakers in filing of nomination papers for the third phase of local government polls.

Mr Aziz said differences of opinion in democracy were only natural. He expressed the confidence that internal feuds in the PML over the local body polls will be over with completion of the process.

He condemned people who “blow out of proportions” sporadic incidents of rape and violence against women in Pakistan but “ignore identical cases occurring far more frequently” in other countries.

He dismissed allegations of government’s inaction, saying he personally monitored all such happenings to immediately address and mitigate them.

He, however, praised elements who had raised their voice against such incidents to invite the attention of authorities to act in time. In his remarks about the opposition’s strike call last Friday, the prime minister termed it a complete failure.