The Hindu : Front Page : Pakistan for “grand reconciliation”

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Thursday, May 22, 2008
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Pakistan for “grand reconciliation”

Nirupama Subramanian

New Delhi and Islamabad re-emphasise need for effective steps to eliminate terror

— PHOTO: PTI

MAKING PROGRESS: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf greets External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee at his office in Islamabad on Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD: Signalling an important policy shift, Pakistan on Wednesday agreed with India to push for an improvement in bilateral economic relations simultaneously with efforts to resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir.

At the end of talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi declared that his government was ready for a “grand reconciliation” with India through dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues “with self-respect and dignity.”

Both sides strongly reaffirmed that they would not permit terrorism to impede the peace process and, in a joint statement, “re-emphasised the need for effective steps for the complete elimination of this menace.”

The statement said the two Ministers reaffirmed the importance of the ceasefire in place since November 2003 and the commitment of both sides to safeguard it.

The countries also signed an agreement on consular access to prisoners, an important step in ensuring the early release of nationals of the two countries from each other’s jails after they have completed their sentence.

At a joint press conference, the Ministers said that in their review of the fourth round of the composite dialogue process, they concurred that significant progress had been made on several fronts.

They particularly singled out Sir Creek as one major issue on which much progress had been made. However, Mr. Qureshi said it was as important for the dialogue to make progress on issues that had been lagging behind, such as the “core issue” of Kashmir.

Both sides agreed that the Kashmir-specific confidence-building measures had contributed to improving the situation of the people there, but also discussed ways to improve these measures.

They agreed to increase the frequency of the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar and Rawalakot-Poonch bus services, and also to finalise the modalities for intra-Kashmir trade and truck services “as early as possible.”

The most significant breakthrough was the concurrence that improvement in economic relations should not await conflict-resolution. Both Ministers underlined that “the two [trade and conflict resolution] are complementary” and said they had discussed several proposals to improve trade relations.

Officials said the discussions had taken in possibilities of cross-border investment, aside from proposals for improving trade, including bettering facilities for export of cement to India.

“The moot point is that if we create a stake in each other’s economic development, it will facilitate in resolving problems in other areas,” Mr. Mukherjee said, giving the India-China example of how unresolved issues between the two countries had not stood in the way of surging bilateral trade.

“We shall have to expand the base for economic cooperation, expand bilateral trade, and encourage investment in each other’s countries by industrialists and investors of both countries,” the External Affairs Minister said.

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