Comprehensive visit of ruling party president and former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to India has injected new impetus to the ongoing confidence building process between the two neighbouring countries for the resolution of longstanding problems, including occupied Kashmir dispute. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has taken an important initiative to promote party-to-party contacts between Pakistan and India, which would substantially help further the peace process, PML Secretary General Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed told APP at the conclusion of the five-day visit to India on the invitation of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
The PML chief, who led an 11-member parliamentary party delegation, held meetings with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ruling party president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJP President L. K. Advani, Union Ministers Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mani Shankar Ayer and leftist party leaders.
With back to back engagements during the stay, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain also had threadbare interactive sessions with the Indian think tanks, writers, scholars, media giants and analysts.
PML secretary general said that the leader of the delegation urged the top leadership of India to seize the opportunity, setting aside conventional mindset, to resolve bilateral issues through political will.
He said the president of ruling party, which brought Pakistan into being, conveyed clear message to India that bold and unpopular decisions were indispensable to find solution of the problems.
The people are stakeholders in the current confidence building and peace process on the both sides, which he observed, would impart further resilience to the efforts for the normalisation of Pak-India relations.
Warm receptions and high protocol accorded to the parliamentary delegation headed by Shujaat Hussain was reflective of further improvement of the atmosphere between the two sides, Mushahid Hussain said.
He said the party president stressed during the meetings that bold political measures were direly needed to settle the differences sans political hegemony.
Responding to a question, Senator Mushahid Hussain described the Indian response to the visit as quite positive. The party chief found sincerity and seriousness among Indian leaders towards taking the dialogue process forward to resolve all issues including Kashmir.
He billed the visit of ruling party president as a milestone in consolidating Pak-India ties and fostering party-to-party contacts and exchanges.
Earlier addressing a big gathering at historic Jamia Masjid of Delhi on the eve of Juma prayer, Shujaat said that he brought the message of goodwill and prosperity for them.
Highlighting the significance of peace process between Pakistan and India, he exhorted them to play their role in realising the objectives of development and wellbeing.
The confidence building process, he said, would help bring the people of the two countries closer and deliver them dividends. The citizens of both the countries should continue to play their effective role in the political and economic uplift of their respective countries.
Shujaat Hussain, along with other members of the delegation, offered Juma prayer and later went round the mosque. Shahi Imam of the historic mosque Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari earlier accorded him warm welcome.
PML president, before returning home on Friday evening also visited Dargah Sharif of great Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Nizamuddin Aulia (RA) in Delhi along with members of the delegation and offered Fateha.
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