Govt committed to providing best security to Chinese: FO.

ISLAMABAD -- The Foreign Office said on Friday that the security of Chinese personnel is an ongoing topic of discussion with China and the government is committed to providing best possible security to their workers in Pakistan.

'Regarding the safety and security of Chinese personnel, programmes and projects, this has been a matter that has been accorded the highest level of priority by the government of Pakistan and we continue to have discussions with our Chinese friends on this,' FO spokesman Asim Iftikhar said at the weekly media briefing.

Chinese concern about security of its workers in Pakistan has remained a major obstacle to bilateral cooperation.

Though attacks on Chinese had been on the rise for some time, the suicide bombing of the van carrying Chinese teachers in Karachi that left four dead, a couple of weeks after the Shehbaz Sharif government took office, alarmed Beijing.

The attack was a major setback for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects that slowed down as the Chinese authorities ramped up pressure on Pakistan to improve security.

Islamabad accepted the Chinese offer of cooperation in investigation and a group of experts visited Pakistan for assisting in the probe.

A gang of terrorists belonging to Balochistan Liberation Army, a terrorist outfit that was believed to be involved in the Karachi University attack, was smashed as a result of that investigation.

This eased some of the...