On Friday March 17, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received Mr. Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the current Minister of Defense and Minister of Water and Power of Pakistan.
According to the Tajik president’s official website, Rahmon and Asif discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and Pakistan.
Tajik leader reportedly expressed satisfaction with the current level of cooperation between the two countries, especially in the fields of energy and security.
The two sides highly appraised cooperation between the security services of Tajikistan and Pakistan in combating terrorism and extremism.
They also positively assessed military and technical cooperation between the two countries and Pakistan’s technical assistance to Tajikistan’s defense ministry, the website said.
Tajik president and Pakistani minister reportedly also discussed cooperation between their countries in implementing regional energy projects.
Khawaja Muhammad Asif (born 9 August 1949) is a Pakistani politician who is the current Minister of Defense and Minister of Water and Power in the third Nawaz Sharif ministry.
Asif began his political career as the member of the Senate of Pakistan during the Sharif’s first ministry in 1991 and had been a member of the federal cabinet, in various positions, since 1997. From 1997 to 1999, he served as the chairman of the Privatization Commission of Pakistan in the second Sharif's ministry with the status of a minister. He briefly held the cabinet portfolios of the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources in the Gillani ministry with an additional charge as Minister of Sports in 2008.
Asif has been an elected member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since 1993 representing Sialkot. In 2013, Asif was appointed as the Minister for Water and Power and Minister for Defense of Pakistan.
