ISLAMABAD, Sept 7: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday said that ties between Britain and Pakistan will be further strengthened. Talking to UK Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office Dr Kim Howells, who called on him at the PM House, the Prime Minister said Pakistan abhorred terrorism and was waging a war against it along with the international community.

However, he said, the world also needed to address the root causes of terrorism, which stemmed from a feeling of deprivation, lack of dispute resolution and sense of marginalisation of the affected communities.

The prime minister said the erroneous linking of Islam with terrorism should be discouraged.

He said the widening gulf between various faiths needed to be bridged through dedicated efforts by religious scholars, leaders and people belonging to all faiths.

The world needed to work harder to create interfaith, inter-civilisation and inter-cultural harmony among people belonging to different faiths, the prime minister added.

Referring to Afghanistan, the prime minister said Pakistan wanted peace and stability in Afghanistan and had been extending moral, diplomatic and economic support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

The prime minister said a strong, stable and vibrant Afghanistan was in the interest of Pakistan and important for the region as the events in Afghanistan impact Pakistan in a number of ways.

He said Pakistan was concerned over the situation in Lebanon. The military action against Lebanon had complicated the Middle East situation.

Pakistan, he said, hoped that the peace process to address the Palestine issue would be emphasised to ensure peace and progress in the region.

Highlighting the resilience of the country’s economy, he said that it had absorbed the shock of last year’s devastating earthquake and was growing at 6.6 per cent annually despite the surge in global oil prices.

The meeting was attended by Mark Lyall Grant, British High Commissioner in Islamabad and other senior officials.—APP