LONDON: The United Kingdom and Pakistan on Saturday agreed to set up a Pak-UK joint task force on education, which would be led by Michael Barber, a renowned and leading British educationist, who has played a key role in educational reforms in the UK.
Talking to media persons along with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi after his one-on-one meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said they had extensive discussions on education.
The task force would work for the implementation of the strategy being developed by Pakistan, he said, adding recent reports by the government of Pakistan identified implementation gap and "we are going to use this task force to bridge the implementation gap".
As the extra money comes from Britain, the United States and other countries for education in Pakistan, it would be ensured through the task force that the money is spent on education, he added.
Earlier, the meeting was also attended by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman Foreign Relations Committee of the National Assembly Asfandyar Wali, spokesman for the president Farhatullah Babar, High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan and Deputy High Commissioner Asif Durrani.
"We had extensive discourse about education in Pakistan. The president has been passionate about the importance of education and the foreign minister as well," said the British foreign secretary. "This brings out the fact that our relations with Pakistan are long term and the children who have school age in Pakistan are the future of Pakistan."
Referring to the FoDP meeting next week, he said: "We will hear from the Pakistani president about very effective way in which the insurgency is being pushed back in the militancy-hit Swat. We will hear about the strategy regarding Malakand, which has really caught the imagination of the international community and has really got very strong support. We will hear further about the way the government wants to extend its comprehensive approach to counter the insurgency in terms of security politics and economics."
Responding to a question, he described the FoDP as unique. "There are very few countries that get the sort of support Pakistan will get next week from the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union countries.
Referring to the EU-Pak summit, he said: "We want to escalate free trade between Pakistan and Europe and it will not happen over night. Pakistan's entrepreneurship and Pakistani ideas need to be brought at the international commercial system."
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