Imran Surani, president of PAK Atlanta, on left, with Mahmud A. Durrani, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S.

Stepping out of the maelstrom of Washington politics for a few days to visit Atlanta, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Mahmud A. Durrani, encouraged the local Pakistani-American community to help expand U.S. relations with Pakistan.

He was invited to Atlanta by the local Pakistani-Americans to celebrate the country's 60th anniversary from colonial rule. The community under the leadership of Imran Surani, president of the community organization PAK Atlanta, raised the funds to provide a weekend-long celebration including a festival at the Gwinnett Civic Center that drew more than 1,000 people.

Consular officials from the embassy, who processed passports and visas for members of the community, accompanied Mr. Durrani to Atlanta.

"We are looking to expand relations with the United States," he told a group of Pakistani-American civic and business leaders at the Kohinoor India Restaurant in Norcross the evening of Aug. 6. "Currently what we have is a ‘yo-yo’ relationship of ups and downs with only security as a base."

Mr. Durrani added that the Pakistan-U.S. relationship needed to include more ties relating to trade, science, education and people-to-people contacts.

He told GlobalAtlanta in a video interview that he spent a great deal of his time on Capitol Hill in Washington trying to persuade individual members of Congress to support a free trade agreement with Pakistan.

"There are economic opportunities in energy, telecommunications, textiles, engineering and services," he added. "The U.S. is Pakistan’s most important trading partner, but the scope needs to be broadened."

Video interview with Mahmud A. Durrani, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S.      QUICKTIME:  English version  |  Urdu version    WINDOWS MEDIA:  English version  |  Urdu version

He also underscored the strength of Pakistan’s economy, predicting that the country’s gross domestic product would grow by more than 7 percent this year, and said that foreign direct investment was at a record high.

Acknowledging sentiment in the Democratic Party was swaying away from trade agreements, he called an FTA "essential" to improved relations. "We will pursue; we will persist," he added, despite some Democrats' opposition to an agreement.

With Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf under verbal attack in Washington for not pursuing terrorists in the northern tribal areas of his country enough, Mr. Durrani defended the efforts of the Pakistani army.

He compared Pakistan’s commitment of 85,000 troops to the northern tribal areas, a space that he called one-twentieth the size of Afghanistan, to the presence of only 40,000 United Nations troops in Afghanistan.

"Ninety percent of the opium is from Afghanistan; from Pakistan the amount is zero," he said. "If we can do it, they can do it."

He also defended Pakistan’s nuclear capacity, saying that relations with India were currently stable because of nuclear deterrence.

The country has also seen advances in democracy, despite the emergence of political complications at the highest levels.

"Pakistan has been in a turbulent period during the last few months," he acknowledged, citing the controversy surrounding Mr. Musharraf’s failed attempt to dismiss a chief justice and an army raid on a mosque that left more than 100 radical students dead.

However, he said that a maturing press was vocal and free to criticize the government incessantly. In recent years, the number of television stations has grown from one to 14.

"For four to five years the press is freer than it ever has been," he said. "The genie is out of the bottle – a blessing, call it what you want, no future government is going to put it back in the bottle."

He also challenged the local community to get more involved in U.S. politics, saying that Pakistan was troubled by America’s Security Act of 2007 and that members of Congress should be told of the problems it presented for Pakistani-Americans.

He added that strong ties to the U.S. were developed over the years by the ability of Pakistanis to attend American universities, which since Sept. 11, 2001, has been interrupted.

In turn, members of the community assured him that while they were "loyal Americans," they would not forget their Pakistani heritage, and that they would like Atlanta to have an honorary consul representing Pakistan.