A SCOTTISH MEP is to receive an honorary degree from a university in Pakistan for his work in building international relations.
David Martin, Scotland's senior European MEP and member of the Labour Party, is to be given the honorary Ph.D. from the Lahore-based University of the Punjab, in recognition of his services to Pakistan, and in particular for helping to develop links between Pakistan and Europe.
Mr Martin said: "It is a great honour to have my work recognised in this way."
The MEP also thanked Mohammad Sarwar, former Govan MP, now Governor of the Punjab, for his work "to help bring about the granting to Pakistan the status of Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) Plus by the European Union."
"It means that Pakistan can now export its goods to 28 countries in the EU without having to pay duties - this will be a huge boost to jobs and prosperity in Pakistan," he said.
"It is also a boost for businesses in Scotland dependent on the textile industry."
GSP Plus status is given only to countries that have signed 27 core conventions of the International Labour Organisation, including agreements on human rights, women's rights and labour standards as well as commitment to good governance.
Governor Sarwar said: "The people of Pakistan and the Pakistani community in Glasgow and Scotland will be eternally grateful to David Martin and his colleagues for all their efforts."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article