Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, President, India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has welcomed the joint statement issued by President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after their meeting in New York on Friday in which they expressed their desire to work together for peace in the region.
In a statement issued to the press, Bilour described their meeting as a historic and epoch-making event and said that the business community desired peaceful settlement of all issues bedevilling relations between India and Pakistan.
He said that the business community of Pakistan wholeheartedly welcomed the agreement reached between the two leaders that possible options for a peaceful, negotiated settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir issue should be explored in a sincere spirit and purposeful manner.
Ilyas expressed confidence that the leaders of India and Pakistan would be able to bring about all round peace in this region, which is so essential for its economic development. He supported the contention of President Musharraf that South Asia is one of the poorest regions and its economy refused to take off because of the two countries' pre-occupation with the Kashmir dispute.
He hoped that the saner elements in both countries would prevail upon their governments to leave aside hackneyed positions of the past and agree on peaceful settlement of all disputes.