Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit on Friday said that the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FODP) was neither a pledging forum nor a donors club. Talking to APP on telephone from London, the spokesman said rather this unique process was a gesture of solidarity expressed by a group of countries and multilateral organisations with Pakistan in its efforts against extremism and terrorism.

Abdul Basit said the recently held Public-Private Partnership conference in Dubai from the FODP platform was part of this process. The idea was floated by Foreign Minister Qureshi at the FODP ministerial meeting held in Istanbul in August last year, while the UAE Foreign Minister offered to host this conference in Dubai.

He mentioned that never before such conference had been held for Pakistan where such a large number of representatives from 20 countries deliberated upon Public-Private Partnership and investment opportunities in Pakistan in the fields of energy, infrastructure, agriculture, education and health.

The Foreign Office spokesman said the idea of the conference was to present specific projects in these areas and to encourage the FODP corporate sector to invest in Pakistan through the Public-Private Partnership framework. He clarified that in Tokyo last year, pledges were made at the Donors' conference and not at the FODP ministerial meeting. These two events were nevertheless held back-to-back on the same day ie 17 April 2009, he added.

Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2010