Recent contacts made by the national security advisors of Pakistan and India should help de-escalate tensions between the both countries over the disputed Kashmir, a prominent Pakistani politician said on Tuesday. Mushahid Hussain, Chairman of the Pakistani Senate's Defense Committee and a special envoy of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said the PM's Advisor Sartaj Aziz has made contact with his Indian counterpart "in the last 48 hours" after India turned down repeated Pakistani proposals of regional and international mediation, a VOA report said.
"Instead of talking at each other, we are now talking to each other," Hussain said while speaking at event sponsored by the Pakistan American League at the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based advocacy organisation.
He called the contacts "a step forward" in easing tensions between India and Pakistan. "I feel there is a lot of room for cautious optimism," Hussain said. "I hope better sense prevails because both Pakistan and India are nuclear powers." The Pakistani senator along with a member of Pakistan's National Assembly, is visiting Washington and other world capitals as part of a Pakistani diplomatic and PR offensive aimed at countering India's version of the latest flare-up in Kashmir.