LSE moot to discuss Pakistan-UK ties post-Brexit

LONDON: Pakistani students at the London School of Economics (LSE) will be organising a major conference to discuss the shared economic prospects of Britain and Pakistan.

Aisha Siddiqa, the conference organiser and LSE student, said the event on March 16 at the LSE’s Shaw Library will mark as “one of the biggest collaboration between MPs from House of Commons, businessmen, academics and students at the LSE”.

She said: “This collaboration between professionals from various fields will shed light on the strong relations between Pakistan and Britain and how they both should work together in the future to achieve prosperity for their peoples.”

Siddiqa said the need for such a conference has been felt as during Brexit, the UK will be going through many changes in terms of immigration, trade policies, customs union and its rules for visa application for people around the world.

“The UK is looking towards strengthening its ties with other countries who are part of WTO, brings greater opportunities for Pakistan to work closely with the UK on trade, immigration and other opportunities that arise when UK leaves the laws of EU behind and secure its independent seat at the WTO,” she said.

The organiser explained that Pakistan has recently gone through a political shake-up with its status-quo having been radically replaced with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) Party.

“With the country’s fiscal deficit at its highest in eight years and an IMF bail-out looming in the corner, improved trade relations with countries like the United Kingdom are direly needed. It’s most relevant time to start considering the post-Brexit relations the British government will want to maintain and this conference is a strong step towards achieving this goal,” she explained.

The importance of stronger ties between Britain and the other countries, after Brexit, led Siddiqa to build a forum named Ideas Exchange Forum that will put Britain with another country in discussion on how working together on a global scale can maintain the prosperity between the two states.

She said that speakers at the conference will include Pakistan High Commissioner to UK Mohammad Nafees Zakaria, Director of European Institution for Trade Policy Sir David Hening, Faisal Rasheed MP, who works on UK’s trade relations at the House of Commons, Shadow Minister of Immigration Afzal Khan MP and Virendra Sharma MP.