'Kashmiris living in UK to invest Rs 1B in Azad Kashmir'
Pakistan Times Kashmir Desk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat Thursday said the Kashmiris living in the United Kingdom would invest about Rs. one billion in tourism, mineral development and energy sectors in Azad Kashmir this year.

Addressing a press conference here, on his return from a 12-day visit to United Kingdom and Paris he said that he met a number of Kashmiri businessmen living in Europe who gave assurance to invest in Azad Kashmir.

He said that two million Muslims are living in UK out of which one million are Pakistani and 600,000 belong to Kashmir origin. He said that for the last 57 years small investment was made in Azad Kashmir now due to the investment of UK Kashmiris the region would prosper.

Faisal said that in UK 2,000 to 2,500 Pakistani Kashmiris falls in the category of millionaire and about two million are business owners. He said that soon the election would be held in UK and Pakistani community would play a vital role in these elections.

The number of Pakistanis is expected to increase to five or six in the House of Commons and due to this the peace process of Kashmir would get a new direction.

Faisal said that he had a useful discussion with Chairperson of All Parties Parliamentary Group (APPG) and she said that the group has a  clear approach about the human violations taking place in occupied Kashmir.

He said the APPG has ensured that whenever the British government will favour India to become a permanent member of the Security Council, they would pressured it, which is good for the Pakistani Foreign Policy.

Faisal said that he had a meeting with Aga Khan Foundation in Paris and he was informed that they have increased the budget allocations for the development projects in Northern Areas.●