The Hindu : India for Delhi-Lahore bus from July 11

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

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India for Delhi-Lahore bus from July 11

By Amit Baruah

The Pakistan High Commissioner, Aziz Ahmed Khan, on his arrival at the Wagah border checkpost on Monday. — PTI

NEW DELHI JUNE 30. India has suggested to Pakistan that the Delhi-Lahore bus service could resume on July 11, even as the Pakistan High Commissioner-designate to India, Aziz Ahmed Khan, arrived in here this evening.

Official sources said that as both India and Pakistan had given visas to their bus crew on Saturday and Monday respectively, New Delhi had suggested that the operations could begin on July 11. Pakistan, too, said that the service was "about to resume".

The service operated on Tuesdays and Fridays before it was suspended after the December 13, 2001, terrorist attack on Parliament House. The Delhi Transport Corporation will begin accepting bookings from tomorrow for those having valid visas.

On arrival after crossing the Wagah border, Mr. Aziz Khan reiterated the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf's offer that Islamabad is ready for a dialogue with India anytime and anywhere. Hoping that the dialogue would start soon, he favoured restoring the strength of the High Commissions in Islamabad and New Delhi.

`No parallel'

In a related development, the Foreign Office today said there was no parallel between Tibet and Jammu and Kashmir as suggested by the Pakistani President.

``There is no similarity between Tibet and Jammu and Kashmir. Our position that the Tibet Autonomous Region is part of the territory of the People's Republic of China has been consistent for nearly five decades.

"On Jammu and Kashmir, the problem is precisely that Pakistan refuses to recognise the political and legal reality that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. Clearly, therefore, the flexibility that President Musharraf has referred to, has to be shown by Pakistan,'' the spokesman said.

Talking to presspersons at his residence, after driving down from Amritsar this evening, Mr. Aziz Khan said Islamabad had no hesitation if the Indian and Pakistani Foreign Secretaries met on the sidelines of a SAARC meeting in Kathmandu in early July.

Asked what message he had brought from Islamabad, he said: "Pakistan wants good... neighbourly relations based on the internationally-recognised principles of sovereign equality... we would like to resolve all outstanding issues with India through peaceful means... including the Jammu and Kashmir issue."

Mr. Khan hoped that the process "started now" would gain momentum and move rapidly leading to the two countries sitting across the negotiating table "very soon". He favoured early technical discussions to resume air services between the two countries.

Asked about his previous stint as the Deputy High Commissioner here in the 1980s, Mr. Khan said that it was a pleasant experience although his stay was a little less than two years. "Revisiting India was a great pleasure and honour." On coming to a house that has been "empty" since the previous occupant, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, was asked to leave by India in May 2002, Mr. Khan merely said: "No fault of ours".

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