These remarks were made by High Commissioner for Pakistan to India Abdul Basit while talking on “Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: Challenges and Opportunities” at Jamia Millia Islamia, (Central University) in Delhi.
Both sides, he reiterated, have to make a fundamental decision whether they want to have a normal relationship or a perpetual paradigm of mutual mistrust and animosity.Later, the high commissioner told The News that he told the gathering that the dialogue process was in the interest of both countries and “This is not a favour by one country to the other”.
After the terror attacks on Mumbai, New Delhi has been reluctant to resume the Composite Dialogue rather picking and choosing when and on which topic it wants to engage.
Just as there is great interest in Pakistan to see which party and consequently which candidate grabs the Delhi Sarkar, in India too there is curiosity about what official Pakistan thinks.
Basit was asked several questions regarding terrorism, Afghanistan, Pak-US relations, China and how Islamabad would engage with the new Indian government if Narendra Modi emerged as the prime minister.
“I was clear that we cannot cherry pick issues for discussion. All issues are important and need to be addressed. It is nevertheless understandable that some issues could be resolved earlier than others,” he told The News.
The participants were told that there was no need to reinvent every time they met because over the decades both countries had made some significant progress such as the Indus Waters Treaty and the Composite Dialogue framework. “It is necessary we build on past accomplishments and move forward by fully abiding by bilateral agreements and commitments, but it is very important that we cannot have a dialogue process with preconditions. Preconditions are inherently antithetical to a sustained dialogue process”, he pointed out.
“Pakistan has always been keen to have normal relations with India on the basis of mutual respect and mutual interest and in this regard we want to resolve all our issues including Jammu and Kashmir and achieve peace through a peaceful peace process”, he added.
To several queries about the present environment in Pakistan, Basit underlined that the people of Pakistan were progressive and democratic minded who take great pride in their Islamic ethos and heritage.“There is no conflict between Islam and modernity. Our society has come a long way and stereotypes and narratives on Pakistan are misplaced and passé”, he explained.
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