Pakistan top political parties have supported the ongoing composite dialogue between Pakistan and India, but demanded of India to announce a timeframe for Kashmir resolution to herald a new era of sustainable peace in South Asian region.
They put forward the demand at a meeting with the visiting Indian External Affairs Minister Parnab Mukherjee here on Sunday, within 24 hours of New Delhi refusal to announce such a timeframe.
Political stalwarts PML President Shujaat Hussain, ARD Chairman Amin Fahim, ANP President Asfandyar Wali, MMA Secretary General Fazlur Rahman and MQM's Dr Farooq Sattar held a breakfast meeting with the Indian Foreign Minister on Sunday morning.
Nawaz PML stayed away and, according to sources, it plans to hold an 'exclusive' meeting with Mukherjee.
During the meeting, the country's political leadership stressed the need for promoting people-to-people contacts between the two neighbouring countries and suggested a number of steps in this regard, like liberalisation of visa regime.
Senior politicians, both from the ruling and opposition side, urged for a constant interaction between the political parties as well.
In a significant development to move forward the dialogue process, the nuclear arch-rivals agreed to launch another round of composite dialogue by March.
The political leaders, while talking to Mukherjee, expressed Pakistan's sincerity to the ongoing peace process between the two sides.
They urged the Indian government to respond positively to the proposals floated by President Pervez Musharraf for a lasting solution of the Kashmir dispute.
The opposition leaders asked the visiting minister to take some tangible steps to ease restrictions on movement of the Kashmiri people on both sides of the line of control.
Mukherjee also expressed his country's sincerity to move forward the dialogue process between the two sides and said he hoped that the neighbouring countries would resolve all issues amicably.
NNI ADDS: Indian Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee and key leaders of the ruling and opposition parties on Sunday agreed to peacefully resolve the disputes between the two countries through dialogue. They met at a breakfast, hosted by Indian High Commissioner for Pakistan's political leaders.
MMA leader Fazlur Rehman, PML President Shujaat Hussain, ARD President Amin Fahim, Farooq Sattar of MQM and ANP's Asfandyar Wali attended the meeting.
After the meeting Fazl told NNI that it was a goodwill meeting and had no formal agenda. He said that it was agreed that all outstanding issues should be resolved through meaningful talks so that the masses of both countries could live peacefully.
He said that Kashmir solution should also be acceptable to the Kashmiri people as they could also live with honour and dignity. He said that positive talks were held with the India Foreign Minister.
He said the meeting was not informed about the details of dialogue. However, the focal point of the meeting was amicable solution of all disputes between the two countries.
Amin Faheem said that the Pakistani leaders called for enhanced people-to-people contact and to ease the visa system. He said that he demanded opening of consulates in Karachi and Mumbai to facilitate the people. He said the leaders also called for efforts for peace between the two nations.
SAFMA-MUKHERJEE: A delegation of South Asian journalists also met Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday and apprised him about South Asian Free Media Association's (Safma) plans to hold a conference to commemorate the 150th year of Indian 'war of independence'.
The Association plans to hold a conference of parliamentarians of South Asia in May this year, General Secretary of the Indian chapter of Safma, Vinod Sharma, said.
The delegation, led by Secretary-General Imtiaz Alam, informed Mukherjee about its plans to organise a summit of journalists of the region before the Saarc summit in New Delhi in April this year.
Sharma said plans were afoot to organise separate meetings between top Indian and Pakistani journalists and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf before the Saarc summit. Besides Sharma and Alam, the Safma delegation included Nusurat Javed, President of Safma, Pakistan, and Anjum Rasheed, co-ordinator Safma, Pakistan. Mukherjee wrapped up his two-day visit to Pakistan and left for New Delhi on Sunday afternoon, officials said.
Mukherjee was seen off at the airport by foreign secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan and other senior officials.
Comments
Comments are closed.