Pak FM Qureshi Grilled in the European Parliament on Women's and Minorities Issues

BRUSSELS, October 15, 2010 - Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi held meetings with the
members of Foreign Affairs Committee, Development Committee and Delegation
for South Asia in the European Parliament here on Thursday. During the
meetings held on the sidelines of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP)
meeting being held here on Friday (October 15).

During the conference MEP Emine Bozkurt and MEP Ana Gomes asked the
Pakistani Foreign Minister about the violence against women in Pakistan and
about the interference of the Pakistani secret service ISI in the running of
Afghanistan.

Commenting to these questions about women the Pakistani Foreign Minister
replied "We are building a democratic culture, but obviously it takes time.
Old habits die hard."

Commenting on the interference in Afghanistan he mentioned "If you want
to help us fight extremism and terrorism one way of doing that is making
Pakistan economically stable. And Afghanistan is a neighbour and we shall do
all to have a friendly government in Afghanistan".

The full video can be watched at

www.europarl.europa.eu/wps-europarl-internet/frd/vod/player?eventC
ode=20101014-0900-SPECIAL-AFET&language=en&byLeftMenu=researchcommittee&categ
ory=COMMITTEE&format=wmv#anchor1

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste
this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the
space if one exists.)

Media Contact/Source: European Organization of Pakistani Minorities,
info at eopm.org, +32-2-808-6857