Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said Thursday that Pakistan is serious in normalising relations with India and pursuing for an environment conducive to dialogue on smaller as well as larger issues. "The dialogue process between Pakistan and India should continue without any pause," she said while addressing a press conference on her return from India at the Lahore airport.
The foreign minister told the media men that all issues, including the core issue of Kashmir were discussed with the Indian leadership. According to her, breakthrough in the dialogue is in Pakistan's interest. She said she has conveyed Indian Prime Minister an invitation to visit to Pakistan. Stressing upon an uninterrupted process of dialogue on bilateral issues, Hina said purpose of her visit to reengage India to build bilateral trust. She said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured of resolving bilateral issues, including Kashmir.
However, she made clear that no one, on either side, has backtracked from its stated position and still made serious effort to keep the dialogue process as positive and constructive. She said divergence of approach is still there but Pakistan was in favour of taking India as enemy state any further. Instead, she said, the objective of whole activity is to build trust for a stable Pakistan ahead.
She admitted that Mumbai attack has been a prime focus of Indian leadership during the dialogue but she has made clear that Pakistan was not interested delaying the trial of responsible ones. She said Pakistan is fully alive to the fact that India and Pakistan are two important states in a highly important region. She appealed media to give leadership of both countries some space to operate. She said smilingly that she has also observed hostile sentiment in India media as well on hard core issues, which is natural one.
On water issues, she said the matter was discussed during bilateral dialogue with a prime focus of preserving the sanctity of the Indus Water treaty. However, she made clear that she had no crystal ball to predict about any positive outcome of dialogue and appealed for a real chance to progress the dialogue process future. She said she has returned country with a high sense of satisfaction so far as scope of bilateral dialogue is concerned.