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                        <description>The Express Tribune keeps you up to date with all the latest happenings from Pakistan and across the world!</description>
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			<title>‘Cordial’ water talks: Pakistan, India agree on frequent meetings</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2291220/cordial-water-talks-pakistan-india-agree-on-frequent-meetings</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2291220/cordial-water-talks-pakistan-india-agree-on-frequent-meetings#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 24 Mar 21 17:36:43 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Meeting of PIC is being linked to the renewed push by the two sides to seek rapprochement]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan and India on Wednesday concluded the two-day talks of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) with an agreement to interact more frequently in order to resolve the issues through bilateral discussions.

The talks, according to a statement issued by India&rsquo;s External Affairs Ministry, were held in a &ldquo;cordial manner&rdquo; in New Delhi. The two sides were led by their respective Indus water commissioners.

The meeting was the first since August 2018, although it was supposed to take place in 2019. The official explanation said the annual meeting could not take place because of the Covid-19 pandemic but sources told The Express Tribune that it also had to do with the deepening tensions between the two countries after India unilaterally revoked the special status of the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) in August 2019.

The meeting of the PIC is being linked to the renewed push by the two sides to seek rapprochement. The joint statement issued after the talks indicated that the two sides tried to send a positive message.

Read more: Two-day water-sharing talks signal thaw in Pakistan, India ties

The statement said the annual meeting of the PIC comprising Indus Commissioners of India and Pakistan was held on March 23-24, 2021 in New Delhi.

&ldquo;Under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty, signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, the two Commissioners are required to meet at least once every year, alternately in India and Pakistan. The meeting could not be held last year due to restrictions induced by the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic situation,&rdquo; the statement pointed out.

It said that the discussions continued on designs of two Indian projects, namely, Pakal Dul (1,000 MW) and Lower Kalnai (48 MW). Indian side held that these projects were fully compliant with the provisions of the treaty and provided technical data in support of its position.

The Pakistan side requested India for sharing information on the design of other Indian hydropower projects being planned to be developed. The Indian side assured that the information will be supplied as and when required to be supplied under the provisions of the treaty.

&ldquo;The meeting was held in a cordial manner. Both the Commissioners reaffirmed their commitment to interact more frequently in an attempt to resolve the issues by bilateral discussions under the Treaty. It was agreed to hold the next meeting of the PIC in Pakistan on mutually convenient dates,&rdquo; the statement concluded.

The Indus water commissioners&rsquo; talks came against the backdrop of a number of other developments signalling a possible thaw between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan on the Pakistan Day and expressed his desire to have &ldquo;cordial relationship&rdquo; with the people of Pakistan.

He, however, added that for this to happen &ldquo;an environment of trust, devoid of terrorism and hostility, is imperative.&rdquo;

Tensions between the two countries have been on the mend since Pakistan and India agreed to restore 2003 ceasefire understanding on February 25. Following the agreement between the director general military operations, the two countries also decided to lower rhetoric in order to create a better environment for further steps.

Both Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa recently sounded conciliatory towards India. While Prime Minister Imran said India would have to take the first step, the army chief maintained that it was time to &ldquo;bury the past and move forward.&rdquo;

It is expected that the two countries will take gradual steps to normalise ties. The next possible move may include the restoration of diplomatic ties to the level of ambassadors. Pakistan had expelled the Indian high commissioner while recalled its envoy from New Delhi after India abrogated Article 370 on August 5, 2019. Restoration of trade could also be another step.]]>
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			<title>India’s Pakistan groove</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/727921/indias-pakistan-groove</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/727921/indias-pakistan-groove#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jun 14 19:37:28 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[shahzad chaudhry]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan ain’t letting India in on Afghanistan any time soon. It has its interests to secure.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Fresh from a recent Track II event with India, what abides from the engagement are the four ‘Ts’ that make India’s policy towards Pakistan: Terrorism, Trial, Trade and Transit. You could actually club these into two subheads — terrorism and trade — the two planks that India is willing to anchor its engagement with Pakistan on. Oh yes, Pakistan too could add subjects of interest in a proposed agenda for engagement, and the Indians might even give Pakistan a hearing on those, but to them what will Tango will but be based on the two or four that are of prime interest to them. You could else dance a Samba for all they care, or a Flamingo if you please.



Terrorism first. If the earlier manifestation of their concerns on terrorism centered around Mumbai, and what got officially repeated the world over by them, cross-border terrorism — now has newer mutations. The Line of Control (LoC) takes the prime spot; and this is based around the 2013 spat across the LoC that went on for a better part of 10 months. Without a doubt, the 2003 ceasefire across the LoC was a key confidence-building measure that sustained a sense of normalcy between the two nuclear neighbours, but what remained enigmatic was its 10-month long negation by both sides even as they alternated barbs of fire with words — sans a political or a military objective.

But then nothing in this historic land of poetic imagination comes without a method. Simply put, the Indians were preparing grounds to pre-empt a speculative induction of the militant groups into Kashmir — a la 1989 — as the war in Afghanistan drew down with the departure of the US/ISAF, raising the possibility that those employed there would soon need to find a newer occupation. Hence, the intended conflation of both cross-border terrorism and the eruption of the LoC, and the obvious coining of it as Pakistan’s preparatory manoeuvre to re-enact and exploit a past Indian vulnerability.

Without a neutral body to ascertain facts, such allegations fly with little check. Pakistan feels that India violated and vitiated the relative calm on the LoC to make a pre-emptory case for such an apprehension that at best was only speculative and imagined. The fact is that 2014 is not 1989; and the strategic context is a lot different. Incidents of cross-border intrusions are far less and have gone down considerably according to India’s own record of such events; as are indeed recorded incidents of militancy-related violence, which have come down infinitesimally in Kashmir compared to 2003. In this Track II, Herat — where the Indian consulate was attacked on the day that Narendra Modi was inaugurated in Delhi — was consistently repeated as an exhibit of Pakistan’s collusion with terror; without for a moment recognising the possibility of other agents who would rather see any effort at rapprochement change back to confrontation simply to divert Pakistan’s focus away from its operation in North Waziristan. India’s characterisation of Pakistan is not only stuck in a groove, it remains patently insidious.

On to trade then. Without a doubt, trade is the modern equivalent to familial bonding that used to come with intermarriages among ruling families of competing states. Through such relationships, one bought influence while leveraging stakes. In the India-Pakistan context though, the amount that such trade will add to India’s GDP, by one account, will be minute. That is to reinforce, if you missed the point, that really, trade too is a favour that India makes for Pakistan. The current trade figures of around $2.7 billion will be augmented to a figure of around $10 billion even if all trade is made free and without any accompanying barriers. The experts are quick to point out that this too shall only be the regularisation of the indirect trade that goes on at around $5 billion, through Dubai mostly.

They also suggest that trade — like water — will find its own course in due time and will regulate in volume depending on the space it finds. ‘Space’ is the operative word here; ‘finding’ it in India is the crux. What will remain a challenge will be to dampen traders’ excitement with producers’ interests, which really means that uninhibited trade will only enrich traders while impoverishing producers. Indian experts sweeten the theory of free trade with the possibility of creating a value chain where all linked can create a specialised niche brought together elsewhere as a product. Translated, it means India will assemble while the rest of the world will provide the parts. It took decades before the European Union reached that level of interdependence, and then with a capacity matrix in technology that more or less mirrored each other. Before that, they became a Union. South Asia, in comparison, remains the least integrated region in the world.

What will interest Pakistan in trading with India is an accompanying treaty on investments that should permit each to invest in other’s economy; to begin with, in preferred areas, before gradually expanding the portfolio of choices. But $10 billion and 0.1 per cent of GDP-rise is not what India is so persistently chasing with Pakistan. To it, trade with Pakistan is akin to breaking into a closed system where when apprehensions are fairly soothed and Indian presence is a matter of fact, the door to riches ‘beyond Afghanistan’ will open. It isn’t only the oil and gas in Central Asia that India will covet, or the market that the stans have on offer; it is the accompanying influence that charts India’s geopolitical rise in the region. It will then compete with China in Central Asia, recreate the magic of a Silk Route relationship, and establish its credentials as a bonafide contender in the larger game of dividends.

Neither then it is ‘transit’ to Afghanistan alone India so vehemently pursues. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are but ‘two serial keys’ to the grander opening beyond. At this Track II, Pakistan linked what India seeks as ‘deliverables’ to what Pakistan seeks as ‘dividends’. The two henceforth will move in unison. The plate on that count remains hopelessly empty with numerous Indo-Pak issues still begging resolution. Corollary: Pakistan ain’t letting India in on Afghanistan any time soon. It has its interests to secure. ‘Deliverables’ and ‘dividends’ are inalienably linked.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28th, 2014.

Like Opinion &amp; Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.]]>
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			<title>India hints at restarting talks with Pakistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/585065/india-hints-at-restarting-talks-with-pakistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/585065/india-hints-at-restarting-talks-with-pakistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 01 Aug 13 12:27:08 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Any dialogue with Islamabad presupposes an environment free of violence, says Foreign Secretary India.]]>
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				<![CDATA[India hinted Thursday at restarting peace talks with rival Pakistan that stalled over clashes earlier this year in the disputed region of Kashmir. 

Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said India would be "picking up the threads" of peace talks with the new Pakistani government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which was elected in May.

"There is a new government in Pakistan now. We will be picking up the threads from where we left off with the old government," Singh, the top official in the ministry, told reporters in New Delhi on her first day in the job.

Singh however said that any dialogue with Islamabad "presupposes an environment free of violence and of terror".

Sharif Thursday repeated his call for rapprochement.

"We will boost trade, we will boost business and will boost investment with India," the premier told reporters in Karachi.

"We will also try our best to solve all longstanding issues with India, including Kashmir."

New Delhi broke off peace talks with Islamabad after gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in 2008, an attack which India blamed on Pakistani militants.

Talks resumed in 2011 with two rounds that focused largely on trade and visas. But relations soured again in January and February this year after six soldiers in total from both sides were killed in exchanges along the de facto border in Kashmir, a region claimed by both countries.

Tension has continued between the nuclear-armed nations in recent months, with both sides protesting at the deaths of prisoners held by the other.

____________________________________________________________

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			<title>Sustaining current momentum</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/455778/sustaining-current-momentum</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/455778/sustaining-current-momentum#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 23 Oct 12 16:55:14 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[tariq.fatemi]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=455778</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[While Pakistan government, opposition support better relations with India, India fails to show the requisite resolve.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Relations between the two South Asian neighbours have been making steady progress ever since they resumed their dialogue process in July 2011. Since then, the two countries have taken important steps to reach understanding on issues that are mutually beneficial and, therefore, more amenable to resolution. Consequently, agreements have been reached on a more liberalised trade regime and on easing visa requirements for various categories of people. India has also agreed to allow Pakistani firms to invest in sectors other than defence, space and nuclear energy. More recently, India has agreed to further shorten its Pakistan-specific restrictive trade list by 30 per cent, removing an impediment to trade expansion. Hopefully, India’s early removal of the non-tariff barriers (NTBs) should create a level playing field for the business community in both countries.

The media has also reported that India has stopped work on the controversial Kishanganga Dam being built on the Neelum Jhelum River, in compliance with the International Court of Arbitration’s stay order. If indicative of a more conciliatory attitude, it would be warmly received here, especially as the water issue has become a major concern in Pakistan.

These are all positive steps that have encouraged more frequent exchanges between various groups, generally referred to as ‘peace lobbies’, thus reducing the hostility so very palpable only a few years ago. This change has also been well received by the major powers who have long expressed their unhappiness and frustration at the inability of the two South Asian neighbours to resolve their differences and usher in durable and sustainable peace. These developments have also been warmly welcomed by people in both countries, many of whom have never been enthusiastic about the policy of hostility pursued by their governments. In fact, if the political leaderships had been permitted by their respective ‘establishments’ the kind of freedom they should have had, the two countries may have arrived at a more cordial and constructive relationship decades ago, even if some of the ‘core issues’ had remained unresolved. But it is never too late to do the right thing.

It was now expected that these initiatives would promote mutual trust and confidence, enabling the political leaderships to take on the more contentious issues that have bedevilled relations for far too long. However, an element of uncertainty continues to hang over the bilateral ties and this relates to India’s hesitancy to move beyond small steps. The purpose is not to question Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s sincerity but to point out that while care and caution are advisable — given the tortured history of relations — a degree of imagination and resolve are essential as well.

Of course, one also has to recognise that apart from India’s lingering misgivings about Pakistan’s ‘intentions’, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is handicapped by the peculiar arrangement wherein party president Mrs Sonia Gandhi retains the final say on all critical matters. His government’s image, too, has been tarnished because of the corruption scandals swirling around people in government and party. Moreover, the expectation that Rahul Gandhi will be able to resurrect the party’s popularity has not been met either. These have greatly emboldened the Bharatia Janata Party, encouraging it to oppose initiatives to improve relations with Pakistan — ironic, given that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee prided himself on having co-authored both the Lahore and Islamabad Declarations. On the other hand, there is a rare consensus among stakeholders in Pakistan regarding relations with India. The government enjoys the main opposition party’s support in this effort. It is in this context that one has to express a degree of disappointment at the Indian government’s failure to demonstrate the requisite degree of resolve and determination in pushing for a more meaningful approach to the normalisation process. The stakes are huge and both sides have to remain equally committed to sustaining current momentum.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Indian PM unlikely to visit Pakistan in November</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/451688/indian-pm-unlikely-to-visit-pakistan-in-november</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/451688/indian-pm-unlikely-to-visit-pakistan-in-november#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 15 Oct 12 05:36:03 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=451688</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Singh’s trip being linked to bringing ‘perpetrators’ of the Mumbai attacks to justice.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The November 2008 Mumbai attacks have become the main sticking point in efforts to improve ties between India and Pakistan. So much so that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s maiden visit to Islamabad has been linked to bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice.


The Indian prime minister, who was invited to visit Pakistan in November by President Asif Ali Zardari, is unlikely to undertake the trip this year due to what is being termed as “slow progress” to prosecute those behind the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan is keen to host the Indian premier next month on the eve of celebrations of the 544rd birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak. Be that as it may, Pakistani officials told The Express Tribune that the Indian government had not yet indicated if Singh would be traveling to Islamabad next month.

India’s reluctance to accept President Zardari’s invitation is being attributed to snags in the prosecution of Mumbai attacks suspects currently being tried by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi. Diplomatic sources said India was not content with certain recent developments in the case, which have further delayed the prosecution of suspects.

New Delhi had also voiced concerns over the anti-terrorism court’s rejection of a report submitted by a judicial commission, which traveled to India earlier this year in connection with Mumbai attacks investigation.

The anti-terrorism court said the commission’s report could not be used as evidence against the seven Pakistani suspects because commission members were not allowed to cross-examine key witnesses in India.

Indian officials, however, argued that they allowed the eight-member Pakistani judicial commission to perform its functions, according to the terms of references agreed between the two sides.

When contacted, foreign ministry spokesperson Moazzam Ali Khan said Pakistan would welcome the Indian prime minister without divulging whether New Delhi had accepted the invitation.

“Our invitation is there and we are looking forward to his visit,” said Khan.

Islamabad has long been pushing for Singh’s visit, but the Indian premier is believed to have been reluctant to cross the border before the two sides had made a major breakthrough on some of the key issues stalling the peace process. The official stance of the Indian government has also remained that the Indian premier would visit Pakistan when the atmosphere is “ripe” and something “worthwhile” comes out from such a trip.

“India should show some reciprocity and must not hold hostage the process of rapprochement to one single incident,” commented Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed, Jinnah Fellow at the Oxford University London.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>P.S. I’m just like you!</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/439111/p-s-i%e2%80%99m-just-like-you</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/439111/p-s-i%e2%80%99m-just-like-you#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 23 Sep 12 06:26:44 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[Magazine]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[After communication, exchange Pakistani students realised they were no different in culture, lifestyle than Indians.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The two great subcontinental rivals, Pakistan and India, are at it again. For the umpteenth time, these nearly perennially hostile neighbours are attempting, however cautiously, to improve ties.

First, there was the announcement of granting Most Favoured Nation status to India, and then came S M Krishna’s visit, which resulted in a liberalised visa regime and the lifting of restrictions on Pakistanis investing in India and vice versa.

But this kind of track-one diplomacy, as official government-to-government diplomatic exchanges are called, have proven to be painfully slow and superficial, subject to the whims of changing governments and pressure groups, and are very often stymied by terrorist attacks or transgressions by either of the parties.

A real and lasting change in the relationship between the two countries can only be brought about by altering the ingrained mindsets of the people on both sides of the border. And this can be achieved in a short period of time. Don’t believe us? Well, a civil society programme called  Exchange for Change (EFC) actually managed to achieve this kind of change and create a constituency for peace in just 16 months!

The EFC is a programme run by two not-for-profit organisations, the Pakistan-based Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP) that works to spread education and awareness about national heritage and the India-based Routes2Roots (R2R) that is involved in building cultural and trade ties between Saarc countries. In 2010, the two organisations dabbled in a unique project: it got schoolchildren from the two countries to write letters to each other, opening an unlikely communication channel with ‘friends’ from the ‘enemy’ territory.

The project involved 2,400 children from 10 schools across Delhi, Mumbai, Lahore and Karachi. Every few days or weeks, a CAP or R2R representative would arrive at the schools with a stack of letters, postcards and photographs sent by their cross-border counterparts and hand them out to the excited students who would eagerly pore over them and write back. At the end of the project, some Pakistani students even managed to visit Delhi, while their Indian counterparts took in the sights of Lahore.

With this simple initiative, the age-old barriers of mutual suspicion and hatred began to melt.

The EFC strived to “bridge the intergenerational divide between two great nations, India and Pakistan,” as Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, the Oscar award-winning filmmaker and president of CAP, put it.

“The exchange will hopefully help students realise that the children on the other side of the border are just like them and have similar hobbies and daily routines.” said Tina Vachani, co-founder of Routes2Roots. “When students participating in the project voice their experiences to other friends and family members, hopefully, it will be worth more than a drop in the ocean and a chain message will spread from student to student.”

What the EFC achieved at the end of the project was nothing short of remarkable. After a year-long communication, exchange the children, who initially overwhelmingly considered their counterparts from across the border as ‘hostile,’ realised they were in fact no different in their culture and lifestyle than the ‘other’.

The EFC reports that as many as 45 per cent of the participating students agreed that Pakistan and India share many similarities, which they were unaware of before the project, while 72 per cent stated that they now believe that India and Pakistan can co-exist peacefully. Around 54 per cent of the participating Pakistani students said that their opinion about India had been positively affected and 67 per cent of them said they wanted the programme to continue and would like to know more about India.

Hence, when children got to know each other first hand, stereotypes were shattered and they were able to form their own opinions about the others. What the governments of the two countries could not achieve in so long — building a peace constituency that can ensure amicable relations — a few hundred schoolchildren managed to do. Perhaps, members of the two governments and their armies need to undertake a similar exercise to break the ice once and for all!

Taking a cue from the positive response, the EFC has now decided to launch a second round of the programme this year. This time, around 3,500 school children between the ages of 10 and 14, from 17 schools across Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai will become pen pals.

“When we launched this project in 2010 we believed that this was one small step towards enabling our next generation to build bridges with India,” says Swaleha Alam Shahzada, executive director of CAP. “Now as we relaunch EFC 2012 - 2013, we know that we have made a giant leap in our shared history. Our stories are the same — we just need to share them!”

All material courtesy of CAP and Routes2Roots

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, September 23rd, 2012.

View more pictures here.

Like Express Tribune Magazine on Facebook and follow at @ETribuneMag]]>
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			<title>Building bridges</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440919/building-bridges</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440919/building-bridges#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 22 Sep 12 19:27:22 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan and India appear to be going about the task of building relations stone by stone and brick by brick.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan and India appear to be going about the task of building relations stone by stone and brick by brick. This is a sensible way to ease tensions which have kept the two countries apart for so many years. Things, of course, worsened after the Mumbai attacks of 2008. The fact that things are on track again and are proceeding stage by stage shows the level-headed approach employed by the two neighbours. Trade is a key area where cooperation could benefit both nations immensely.

For this reason, the series of agreements reached in Islamabad during talks with the Indian Commerce Secretary, SR Rao, are encouraging. Pakistan has agreed to consider opening up the Wagah-Attari border for trade, while the possibility of using other land routes — some of them closed for decades — was also discussed. There was also an agreement that under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement, the number of items on the sensitive list would be reduced by both nations to around 100 by 2017. Discussion was also held on issues concerning licensing, certification, lab testing and quality control.

There was progress in other areas as well. India offered the opportunity for banks in both countries to open branches across the border. This step, of course, would facilitate trade and make it easier for businessmen on either side to deal with practical matters. Another extremely important suggestion also came from India offering Pakistan 500 megawatts of electricity, provided that the required infrastructure would be set up. This is something Pakistan should not miss out on given its current situation vis-a-vis the energy crisis. Gas transmission across the border, another step which could help both countries meet energy requirements, was also discussed, including the joint development of solar and wind energy.

The steps laid out are something that the neighbours need to work towards as they offer huge potential. Indeed, it is a tragedy that people of both countries have been deliberately denied these benefits for so long as a result of the political factors, which had kept Islamabad and New Delhi apart. It now appears that bridges are being built. We must hope they will be completed soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23rd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>The rediscovery of India-Pakistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440456/the-rediscovery-of-india-pakistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440456/the-rediscovery-of-india-pakistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Sep 12 20:33:51 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[jyoti.malhotra]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=440456</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Indians and Pakistanis view each other unfavourably, but the Pakistani sentiment is “more intense”.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Recently, a survey by the US-based “fact tank”, the Pew Research Centre, released soon after the signature on a more open visa regime between India and Pakistan in early September, has found that Indians and Pakistanis actually view each other unfavourably, but that the Pakistani sentiment is “more intense”.

It seems that 72 per cent of Pakistanis view India unfavourably — of which 57 per cent viewed India as a very serious threat — while 59 per cent Indians believe Pakistan is a very serious threat to India. According to Pew, for the Indians surveyed, Pakistan is a greater threat than even the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Wow. The Pew findings are more or less borne out of a poll carried out by The Economic Times, one of India’s largest newspapers, a couple of days after the Islamabad signature on the visa regime, also in early September. This poll found that about 72 per cent of Indians feel that the visa regime is going to have little or no impact on the bilateral relationship; Pakistan continued to be perceived in unfavourable terms.

Is anybody surprised by these findings? Distraught? Amazed? I would personally doubt it very much, especially as several visits to Pakistan have confirmed that, actually, both our nations — peoples — actually don’t know each other very much. Because we speak similar languages (Hindu/Urdu), listen to some of the same music and watch some of the same movies, a vocal sections of Indians and Pakistanis often make the mistake of saying, “Oh, we are mirror images of each other!”

Not at all. India and Pakistan may have been carved from the same mother country, but the sooner we get used to the idea that we have had completely different histories, cannot compare our presents and are likely to have totally varied destinies, the sooner we will come to understand the need for a ‘normal’ relationship.

The trick is to look at each other not as enemies or as friends, but as neighbours with whom we must keep a semblance of good cheer, so that we come to the other’s aid and protection when the other needs it. Moreover, let us stop reacting too much — if some want to light candles at Wagah every August 15, that should be their prerogative. The ability to be critical of each other — or have special relationships, as the case may be — cannot depend on our national identities, or the colour of the flag that we fly. Indians and Pakistanis seek each other — or don’t — in third countries for a variety of reasons, so let’s extend that privilege and courtesy to each other, too.

That is why the rising ensemble of voices in Pakistan asking whether Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is going to visit before the end of this year interests me so much. If the Pew Research/The Economic Times poll is correct, then why would Pakistan be so keen on the Indian PM? The answer, in my opinion, lies in a sort of self-vindication mechanism: if the Indian PM doesn’t come to Pakistan, goes the argument in the mind of the ‘average Pakistani’ (be warned: there is no such thing), then he’s no friend of Pakistan and we are “right” in disliking the country he represents. If he does come, well, he will be treated like everybody else ... the special relationship still rests with China.

That’s why the need for us to get to know each other better, to get the edges off our likes and dislikes, to ask if we can be better neighbours and only then be friends. Pakistanis seem surprised when Indians cheer their cricket team against Australia. In fact, I find it surprising that they’re surprised. And here’s why: first of all, Pakistan is part of the subcontinent, which automatically ranks it above any other country in the world. Secondly, the choice is clear if the opponent is Australia ... I remember the time Arjuna Ranatunga ticked off Shane Warne because Warne shouted at Ranatunga for not being able to run because he was so fat. Ranatunga pointed out to Warne that his wife or his coach had never complained, so what was his problem? It helped that the Sri Lankans won that particular match against the Aussies.

Hopefully, the new visa regime will allow ordinary Indians and Pakistanis to travel to each other’s countries, which will further hasten the understanding of each other’s sensitivities and compulsions, as well as the discovery of the shades of grey in the black-and-white picture that dominates the bilateral picture today.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Secretary-level talks: India, Pakistan discuss resuming ‘capital’ flights</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440132/secretary-level-talks-india-pakistan-discuss-resuming-%e2%80%98capital%e2%80%99-flights</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/440132/secretary-level-talks-india-pakistan-discuss-resuming-%e2%80%98capital%e2%80%99-flights#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Sep 12 05:37:20 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Shahbaz Rana]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=440132</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Arch-rivals commence two-day trade talks; discuss cooperation on market access, tariffs.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan and India are discussing a proposal that seeks to restore direct flights between Islamabad and New Delhi, in a latest move indicating improved relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

The idea was discussed during the first day of two-day talks, held on Thursday at the commerce secretary level. Both sides were also exploring the possibility of launching container service between Lahore-Amritsar and Lahore-Ludhiana aimed at facilitating fast-track goods’ movement across the borders.

The negotiations are part of the peace process, which has picked up momentum in recent months. The latest trade talks seek to iron out the remaining outstanding issues, which may delay phasing out of negative-list containing 1,209 non-importable items from India.

Pakistan has in principle decided to abolish the list by end of this year but seeks greater access to Indian markets for providing level-playing field to its exporters.

Head of the Indian delegation, Commerce Secretary S R Rao, also stressed the “need to focus on grey areas (for promotion of trade) rather than in the sectors where the business community on both sides of the border is slightly uneasy and sensitive”.

Rao’s opening statement hints at the biggest thorny issue — the possibility of abolishing Pakistan-specific sensitive list maintained under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement and banning trade in products where Islamabad enjoys competitive advantage.

The Indian delegation comprised officials of the Bank of India, External Affairs, and Power and Heavy Electricals, Gas Authority of India, Ministry of Railways, Civil Aviation and Quality Control Departments.

Rao said the 18-member delegation has a mandate from the Indian government to find a cooperative approach and discover commonalities. He said the way the world trade is moving is the reason why both countries are sitting across the table to normalise trade relations. He said despite multilateral trade arrangements, 60% of the total trade is still bilateral.

Pakistan’s Commerce Secretary Munir Qureshi urged India to resolve the issues of tariffs and non-tariff barriers and deficiency of infrastructure which was hampering the movement of goods. He said the business community was pushing for the resolution of all the outstanding issues. Qureshi stressed the need to provide a level-playing field to local businessmen and urged that the remaining issues should also be addressed in the same spirit of “give and take”.

Both the sides also decided to train exporters in their respective countries so they should be more familiar with quality standards — minimising problems at the time of export. In a bid to lower the cost of conducting business, both sides also reviewed the possibility to sign avoidance of double taxation treaty.

The parties gave final touches to the draft of the three agreements that will be signed today (Friday). Both the sides decided that the rules and regulations to govern these agreements will be framed within three months.

India and Pakistan also explored the possibilities of cooperation in the areas of telecommunication and courier services. They discussed promoting small and medium enterprises aimed at extending benefits to be yielded due to the normalisation of process at all possible levels.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Visa to India</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/435573/visa-to-india</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/435573/visa-to-india#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 12 19:28:26 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[s.akbar.zaidi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=435573</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The question of processing time, scrutiny and general hassles will determine the efficacy of the new visa regime.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Since at least September 2001, if not earlier, along with some other Muslim countries, all located either on the arc of evil or somewhere on the terrorists’ map, it has become very difficult for Pakistanis to get visas to most countries. For Pakistanis, even those who are by all definitions bona fide citizens with no designs to disrupt air traffic or cause problems to their host country, including members of the Pakistani elite, getting a visa borders on the near impossible.

The wait to get a visa can be many weeks or even months, to most destinations, whether you are an academic, professional or business person. Last month, when members of the Pakistani elite were sending their children to the US and Canada to start their higher education, many fathers were not given visas in time to accompany their children. It is usually men, Pakistani men, who are subjected to additional processing and screening or extensive delays when they apply to visas to many countries. Since 9/11, these additional processing delays along with extensive application forms have become the bane of any Pakistani wanting to travel overseas. Until the Mumbai attacks of 2008, India was the exception.

Visas to India — after former General-president Pervez Musharraf’s volte-face following Kargil and Agra — were far easier for Pakistanis to acquire. For about three or four years, India was the preferred destination of many Pakistanis irrespective of class, gender or ethnicity. In the now-prehistoric good old days of cricket matches in the last decade, it almost seemed like Pakistan and India were neighbours, of course with differences and unresolved disputes of over six decades, but still willing to allow people to travel to each others’ countries. Visas were easily available, at least for Pakistanis, and the only hassle and obstacle one had to endure, were the Pakistani spooks outside the Indian High Commission in Islamabad asking irrelevant questions. Indians coming to Pakistan faced more difficult challenges.

In fact, any visa regime between India and Pakistan will benefit Pakistanis more than it will Indians. More Pakistanis will always want to visit India than the reverse traffic, with the possible exception of Indian Sikhs wanting to visit their holy places in Pakistan. With a very large Pakistani migrant population from undivided India which came in the period 1947-52, both Punjabi and Urdu-speaking, there are still ancestral ties and some sense of vague association to the lands which are in India. Apart from these connections, there are numerous other Pakistanis who would want to visit India like other normal visitors; as tourists, business people and for religious pilgrimages, and just to enjoy being in a different country where, at least in north India, language and culture are far more familiar than in other countries of the region or farther afield.

Understandably, since November 2008, and especially once David Headley had been identified as one of the key operatives in the Mumbai attacks, it has been near impossible for normal Pakistanis, even well-connected normal Pakistanis, to get a visa to visit India for a host of purposes, whether meetings, conferences or business purposes. Compared to the pre-2008 period of visitor exchanges and cricket matches, the last four years have been troubled, barren and disheartening for those who have worked for and believed in an India-Pakistan future which was friendly, open and allowed citizens to visit each others’ countries.

The initiatives announced last week at the India-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ meetings in Islamabad, are a bold and appropriate first step in moving to a visa regime which better reflects the wishes and aspirations of many people, particularly Pakistanis who are bound to benefit far more than Indians in a liberal visa regime between the two countries.

There is no denying the fact that the eight new categories of visas are indeed a big step forward, especially allowing concessions to Pakistani business people and those over 65, and all these measures have already been hailed by the Pakistani business community and by civil society. However, the question of processing time, scrutiny and general hassles will determine the efficacy of the new visa regime. While Pakistanis can apply for visas to any country in the world, it is what happens after they apply, which has been cause for concern. One hopes that while the initial sentiment between India and Pakistan is highly positive, the actual implementation of the new liberalised visa agreement will also be so.

Moreover, given the interest by many Pakistanis to visit India — and vice versa — any developments on the new visa regime will have to have substantial support structures to make the scheme workable. Just one Indian or Pakistani High Commission in the capital handling visa applications is inefficient and will give rise to bureaucratic delays. For a start, both countries need to open many more consulates in the cities from where they are expected to receive applications. More flights are also needed between Pakistan’s three main cities to at least Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai, to make the visa regime more realistic. The announcement of the Islamabad-New Delhi flight is a beginning.

The problems with moving forward on visa regimes or trade or cricket between India and Pakistan are not the difficult and bureaucratic resistance to change and the implementation of new processes, but actors on the Pakistani side who have disrupted all peace (and visa) processes in the past: Kargil, the Indian parliament attack, Mumbai. The ability and freedom of Pakistanis wanting to visit India is inextricably determined by the political economy of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Beyond Krishna’s visit</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/434347/beyond-krishna%e2%80%99s-visit</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/434347/beyond-krishna%e2%80%99s-visit#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 10 Sep 12 17:54:53 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[tariq.fatemi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=434347</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[There can be no durable, sustainable understanding between Pakistan, India without movement on political differences.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Given the tortured history of Pakistan-India relations, any evidence of progress in their bilateral relations becomes an occasion for renewed hope.

That relations are on the mend is evident from the fact that without much fanfare, a subtle but significant change has taken place in Pakistan, where the government can take initiatives on relations with India, confident of support from the major opposition party, which had pushed for the normalisation process in the late 1990s and paid a huge price for this laudable objective. More importantly, the army that had reacted so very violently to the Lahore Accord has also modified its stance, demonstrating more appreciation of the global changes and their impact on the country.

Consequently, with little publicity, Pakistan has acceded to the Indian approach that understandings on trade, investment and consular matters should continue to proceed so as to ease tension and create an atmosphere that would hopefully lead to understandings on political differences. This was made clear by Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna when he said in Islamabad last week that though India appreciated Pakistan’s initiatives on the trade front, it would not be reducing pressure for prosecution of the Mumbai accused and for dismantling of the terror network allegedly based in Pakistan. Krishna stuck to this theme, emphasising that while India wants a strong and stable partner in Pakistan, it wishes to see visible progress on the issue of terrorism before it can contemplate meaningful dialogue on political issues.

This linkage was also evident in his response to the oft-repeated question regarding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Pakistan, when he emphasised that “the right atmosphere needs to be created for the visit”. Regarding issues such as Siachen and Sir Creek, Krishna emphasised that while India was committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan, “given the complexities of bilateral relations, we have to be patient as we move forward and build more trust and confidence in each other”.

This would explain why the peace process, resumed last year after a nearly two-and-a-half-year break following the Mumbai attacks, has registered progress only in the areas of trade liberalisation and people-to-people contact, whereas on issues such as the Wullar Barrage, Sir Creek, Siachen and Kashmir, there has been no significant movement. The common man desirous of seeing the two countries reduce, if not end, their acrimonious ties sees the signing of the liberal visa accord as facilitating closer contact and understanding. But the reality is that to the laundry list of differences that continue to plague the two countries, water-related issues and Pakistan’s concerns about India’s plans in Afghanistan have injected new urgency.

India’s insistence on maintaining the status quo on political differences may sell well in that country, but it would be unfortunate if it were to look at Pakistan merely as a market for its consumer goods and not as an essential element in the much desired and urgently needed regional cooperation, especially as a facilitator of energy imports. There can be no durable and sustainable understanding without some movement on political differences, notwithstanding the pious hopes of the two foreign ministers, both of whom emphasised that “we will not be held hostage to history”. And yet, Krishna could not help remind the Indian journalists that “we cannot forget (the Mumbai attacks), or gloss over it”. While Pakistanis respect India’s feelings on Mumbai, they are convinced that progress on doables such as Siachen or Sir Creek would reduce military presence on the international frontiers and provide a powerful impetus to the peace process which would strengthen the peace lobbies in both countries and give fresh hopes to Kashmiris on both sides of the divide. Krishna’s visit has had a positive impact, but India’s admirable economic growth and diplomatic successes should encourage it to offer bold and imaginative initiatives to Pakistan, rather than be satisfied with narrowly defined, transient objectives.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2012.


&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Krishna wraps up ‘fruitful’ trip with Lahore sojourn</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/434143/krishna-wraps-up-%e2%80%98fruitful%e2%80%99-trip-with-lahore-sojourn</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/434143/krishna-wraps-up-%e2%80%98fruitful%e2%80%99-trip-with-lahore-sojourn#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 10 Sep 12 04:46:11 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[abdul.manan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=434143</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Indian foreign minister says his country would like to see a stable and peaceful Pakistan.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Concluding his much-anticipated and closely-watched three-day trip to Pakistan on a high note, Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna termed his interactions “very fruitful”.


“After seven years, we had a joint commission meeting of India and Pakistan with the Pakistani foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar … it was a very fruitful visit,” Krishna said while addressing the media at Lahore airport.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the people of India would like to see a stable and peaceful Pakistan, Krishna said. The foreign minister said he had discussions with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in Islamabad.

“We were able to make a few decisions; we signed the visa liberalisation pact and a cultural pact. All this is going to help foster a much more cordial relationship between the two countries,” he said.

Visiting Lahore

Earlier in the day, Krishna paid his respects at Data Darbar and Gurdwara Dera Sahib and visited Minar-e-Pakistan.

He also dined with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and met Governor Latif Khan Khosa.

During his meeting with Governor Khosa, Krishna candidly said that all problems could not be resolved in one meeting.

India and Pakistan must strive to maintain the trust between the two countries, he said.

The governor seconded Krishna, adding that all issues, including Kashmir, should be resolved through dialogue.

Luncheon with Shahbaz

Progress and prosperity for the people of Pakistan and India lies in the time-honoured principle of peaceful co-existence, for which meaningful dialogue must continue between the two countries, said the Punjab chief minister at the luncheon in Krishna’s honour.

Shahbaz said that Pakistan and India have already fought wars, which proved to be quite useless.

Both countries, instead, can benefit from each other’s experiences in commerce, industry, education, health, technology and other sectors, he said.

It is time to quit the arms race and compete in the fields of transfer of technology, tourism, productivity and cultural exchange.

He lauded the new, liberalised visa regime and cited the example of European countries that were at loggerheads for centuries but are now cooperating as part of a European Union.

He threw his weight behind the normalisation of ties at the federal level, and emphasised that the process was initiated during the government of his brother, Nawaz Sharif.

Krishna acknowledged Nawaz’s role in the peace process and called him the “biggest flag-bearer for betterment of relationship between Pakistan and India”.

India and Pakistan are moving towards better relations which will strengthen the process of confidence-building, he said, adding that Indian premier Singh is also interested in strengthening relations with Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>India wants a stable, peaceful and progressive Pakistan: Krishna</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433877/india-wants-a-stable-peaceful-and-progressive-pakistan-krishna</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433877/india-wants-a-stable-peaceful-and-progressive-pakistan-krishna#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 09 Sep 12 13:50:00 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[sidrah.moiz]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Punjab]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=433877</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says Indian PM, people of India would like to see stable, peaceful Pakistan as it means quite a bit to entire region.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Completing his three-day visit to Pakistan, Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna left for India on Sunday.

During his visit to Lahore on the last day of his diplomatic tour, Krishna said that India wants a stable, peaceful and progressive Pakistan as its neighbour.

Speaking to the media at the Allama Iqbal International Airport, the Indian foreign minister said that the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and the people of India would like to see a stable and peaceful Pakistan as it “means quite a bit to the entire region.”

Speaking about his Islamabad visit, Krishna said that he had discussions with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. “After seven years, we had a joint commission meeting of India and Pakistan, with the Pakistani foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar … it was a very fruitful visit.”

“We were able to make few decisions, we signed the visa liberalisation pact and a cultural pact – all this is going to help foster a much more cordial relationship between the two countries,” he said.

The Indian FM met Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khosa and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

During his meeting with the Governor Punjab, Krishna said that India and Pakistan must strive to maintain the trust between the two countries. He added that however all problems cannot be solved during one meeting.

Agreeing with Krishna, Khosa said that all issues including the Kashmir problem should be solved through dialogue.

Speaking to Punjab chief minister, Krishna said that there has been significant progress in Pakistan-India relations and further improvement can be achieved by addressing all the key issues.

Sharif said that both the countries must forget past differences and move forward.

The Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) also invited Krishna for a luncheon.

During his time in Lahore, Krishna visited Data Darbar, Minar-e-Pakistan and a gurdwara.]]>
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			<title>A historic breakthrough with India</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433551/a-historic-breakthrough-with-india</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433551/a-historic-breakthrough-with-india#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 08 Sep 12 16:49:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=433551</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan will be better able to confront al Qaeda terrorists without relying on the subterfuge of blaming India.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik signed a historic document on September 8 on the bilateral visa regime that can transform South Asia. Eight different categories have been named for a new visa regulation, including six-month visas to visit five cities for tourists without the condition of invitation and police reporting, for businessmen of two categories with several years of multiple entry facility, and at-the-border visas for senior citizens above the age of 65, etc.

The most stubborn roadblock to the breakthrough was experienced from the Pakistan military, which has acted as an arbiter of all civilian policy towards India. Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is to be praised for accepting the positions taken by two mainstream parties — the PPP and the PML-N — over the past decades towards India. The new visa regime will knock off the most insuperable hurdle in the way of resolving Indo-Pakistan bilateral disputes.

Manmohan Singh’s government in New Delhi has also taken some steps that no past government had dared to take. It has chosen to set aside its preconditions relating to terrorism that it attached to any initiative at normalisation. New Delhi has decided to forget the accusations by our interior minister and the various TV channels about how India was paying the Taliban to kill innocent Pakistanis and enabling the Baloch rebels with dollars to launch attacks in Balochistan. There was a time not long ago when Mr Krishna used to come to Islamabad asking for proof which was never forthcoming. India still wants Pakistan to do something about the elements that are responsible for the 2008 Mumbai massacre and has swallowed the acceptance of some proxy warriors in Pakistan that the world accuses of cross-border terrorism.

Mr Krishna has emerged as a most effective communicator during his visit, insisting that his government wanted a stable Pakistan. The government has given him extraordinary protocol, getting him to meet the president and the prime minister before his meeting with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. What he and his Pakistani counterpart have agreed upon will meet the approval of the main opposition party in parliament, the PML-N. Its leader, Mr Nawaz Sharif, has been announcing — in the face of disagreement from his conservative vote bank — that he would abolish a visa requirement with India after coming to power. He actually went further than anyone in Pakistan in consigning the perennial bilateral disputes to the post-normalisation era when he suggested that Pakistan should withdraw from Siachen unilaterally.

Once enforced, the new visa protocol will be transformational. Given the rise in India of an opulent middle class keen to travel as tourists, Pakistan will have to go on overdrive to build new facilities to cater to the new tourism despite its terrorism-marred conditions. New hotels and roads will have to be built for people coming by road, new border check posts in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Sindh will have to be constructed to receive them. Pakistan will now find it easy to agree to a two-way transit trade route between Afghanistan and India, thus averting the losses it was sure to sustain from the opening of an alternative route through the newly-built Iranian port of Chabahar. The route that joins India and Afghanistan will ultimately be the regional commercial highway to Central Asia. One can hope that the project of the Iranian gas pipeline will be favourably affected by Indo-Pakistan normalisation.

The normalisation-first approach — favoured by the world but not by Pakistan — is going to facilitate the final resolution of bilateral disputes: Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage and other water issues, and terrorism, etc. Above all, Pakistan, once assured of peace on its eastern border, will be better able to confront al Qaeda and its ancillary terrorists like the Taliban, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jandullah without relying on the subterfuge of blaming India. Pakistan will cease to be the national security state preying on its own people and will be better able to align its national economy with the well-being of its people.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan-India new visa regime</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433546/pakistan-india-new-visa-regime</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433546/pakistan-india-new-visa-regime#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 08 Sep 12 14:01:17 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[More concessions have been given to businessmen from both countries with giving them multiple entry one year visa.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan and India on Saturday signed new liberalised visa regime giving more concessions and simplifying the procedure to grant visa with a view to promote people-to-people contacts and enhance trade and business activities between two neighbours.    

The new visa regime agreement was signed by Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

According to the new visa regime, more concessions have been given to the businessmen from both the countries with giving them multiple entry one year visa with the exemption from the Police Report and with increasing the number of cities.

Group Tourist Visa

A new category of Group Tourist Visa has been introduced under which a group of 10 to 50 persons will get Group Tourist visa which will be valid for 30 days and it will be managed by the registered tour operators from both the countries.

This type of visa will be organised by approved tour operators and travel agents to furnish details of 45 days in advance.

The tour operator will be responsible for police report on behalf of the group and the list of designated tour operators as well as list of approved identified routes and tourists destinations will be exchanged by both sides from time to time.

In this category, the group tourist visa facility will also be available to students of educational institutions of both countries, however, this will be a tourist visa only and not for seeking admission in educational institutions of either country.

Diplomatic/ Non-diplomatic Visa

A Diplomatic Visa will be issued within a period of 30 days and it will be valid for the place and duration of assignment of the diplomats instead of previously one year visa.

In the category of non-diplomatic visa, previously there was no mention of time frame and now under the new visa regime agreement, it will be issued within a period of 45 days.

Official visit and visitor visa

In the category of official visit, the visa will be valid for15 days as compared to previous term of one month.

In the category of visitor visa, there was single entry and validity was 30 days, for meeting with relatives, friends, businessmen but now it will be single entry to be issued for period of six months but stay will not be exceed for three months and it will be for five places instead of current three places.

However, Business Visa has been separated from visitor's visa and now under a new category, a visitor visa will be issued for a maximum for five specified places and it will be for two years with multiple entries to the senior citizens above the age of 65, spouse of a national of one country married to persons of another country and children below 12 years of age accompanying parents.

In the transit visa category, previously it was issued for 72hours but now it will be issued for 36 hours.

Business Visa

According to the new visa regime, in the category of Business Visa, visa was for three months with single entry in the past but under the new visa regime, businessmen with an income of Rs0.1 million or equivalent per annum or annual turnover or gross sale of Rs3 million or equivalent will be given one year business visa with five places for up to four entries.

Under new visa regime, businessmen with an income of at least Rs5 million or equivalent per annum or turnover of Rs30 million or equivalent per annum will be given one year multiple entry business visa for up to ten places with exemption from Police Reporting.

Under the new visa agreement, the visa shall specify that the period of stay of the businessman at a time shall not exceed 30days.

The maximum time taken in processing of a business visa will not exceed more than five weeks.

Pilgrim Visa

In the category of Pilgrim Visa, under the new visa regime, pilgrim visas will be issued to pilgrims intending to visit religious shrines as per the 1974 protocol on visits to religious shrines, or any future revision to the protocol.

Such visas need to be applied at least 45 days before the commencement of the intended tour.

The visa will be issued at least ten days before the commencement of travel. These visas will be issued for a single entry and restricted to 15 days validity and would be non-extendable.

Visa on arrival

In the category of visa on arrival, under the new visa regime, persons of more than 65 years of age will be given 45 days visa at arrival at Attari Wagah check post and it will be non-extendable and non-convertible.

As compared to previous check posts, when the persons have to enter and exit through the same route and have to use same mode of travel for onward and return journey, under the new visa regime agreement, now the people can enter and exit from different check posts and change in mode of travel will also be permitted.

However, this is subject to the exception that exit from Wagah/Attari by road on foot, where it cannot be accepted, unless the entry was also by foot via Attari/Wagah.

The check posts being used even under new agreement will be by Air from India Mumbai/Delhi/Chennai and from Pakistan it will be Karachi/Lahore and Islamabad.

By sea the check post will be Mumbai/Karachi while by Land it will be Wagah/Attari and Khokhrapar/Munabao.

Seeking visa

For the registration for seeking visa, the time period is the same that it has be within 24 hours but the persons of more than 65years of age, children below 12 years of age and eminent businessmen are exempted from Police Reporting.

There has been no change for seamen which will be given a landing permit for a period not exceeding for 24 hours.

For the visa fee, it has been decided that it will be Rs100 or equivalent instead of the current rate of Rs15 charged as visa fee.

Regarding the validity of the visa, under the new visa regime, it has been agreed that the applicant must avail the visa within a period of 80 days from the date of issue. If there are grounds requiring extension of validity, the concerned mission will take decision on such requests on priority.

This provision will not be applicable to the holders of business visa.]]>
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			<title>India-Pakistan reach agreement on lenient visa regime</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433506/india-pakistan-reach-agreement-on-lenient-visa-regime</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433506/india-pakistan-reach-agreement-on-lenient-visa-regime#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 08 Sep 12 11:04:18 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=433506</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Foreign Minister Khar says both countries have reiterated their commitment to Indus Basin Water Treaty.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The foreign ministers of the neighbouring countries, meeting at the foreign office in Islamabad in an effort to improve bilateral relations, reached an agreement of making the visa regime more lenient, Express News reported on Saturday.

(Read the new visa regime here)

The much-awaited foreign level talks between Pakistan and India commenced on Saturday at the Foreign Office with a view to review the last one-and-half-year progress on bilateral relations on all disputed issues.

The new visa regime agreement was signed by Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna and Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

"We will move forward... We will not be held hostage to history," Khar told a joint news conference with Krishna after signing the agreement.

"We must learn from the past and not miss any more opportunities. Pakistan is committed not to lose any opportunities. Pakistan is committed to creating new opportunities," she said.

Khar said that the two sides have reiterated their commitment to Indus Basin Water Treaty. “Pakistan has invited India to look at the possibility of improving the implementation mechanism of the treaty,” she remarked.

“Pakistan is committed not to losing any opportunity and to creating new opportunities,” she said and added that the two countries have made progress during the last one year because of their engagements at all levels.

The foreign minister assured that by the end of this year, Pakistan will do trade with India like it does with other countries of the world.

Krishna also expressed satisfaction over the progress achieved in the ongoing talks between the two countries and said that both the sides have agreed to fight terrorism in an effective manner.

“They (Pakistan and India) are cognisant that there is a long way to go, and the path will not be easy but they are committed to moving forward in order to writing a new chapter of peace and cooperation in their relationship,” the Indian minister said.

According to the new visa regime, more concessions have been given to the businessmen from both the countries with giving them multiple entry one year visa with the exemption from the Police Report and with increasing the number of cities.

As per the agreement, big investors and traders will be given 3-year multiple visas and a 6-month transit visa while smaller investors and traders will be given a 1-year multiple visa.

Earlier, the two foreign ministers held one-on-one meeting before the start of the delegation level talks.

Krishna held meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in Islamabad on Friday and discussed a whole range of issues including confidence building measures.

_____________________________________________

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			<title>Burying the bitter past: Pakistan, India reach visa regime milestone</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433373/burying-the-bitter-past-pakistan-india-reach-visa-regime-milestone</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433373/burying-the-bitter-past-pakistan-india-reach-visa-regime-milestone#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 08 Sep 12 01:43:05 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=433373</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[New visa policy, to be signed today, envisages eight different categories.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan and India are set to sign a landmark visa accord today (Saturday), in a move that should deliver the first-ever tangible results of a nascent peace process between the arch rivals that had stalled following the 2008 Mumbai attacks.


The historic visa regime, which seeks to do away with decades-old stringent travel restrictions on cross-border movement, will be signed during talks between Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and her Indian counterpart S M Krishna.

The Indian foreign minister arrived on Friday on a three-day visit as part of the composite dialogue between the two countries. Krishna’s formal talks with Khar at the weekend will culminate the second round of talks on the peace process.

Ahead of the high-level negotiations, foreign secretaries from the two countries met to firm up the agenda.

Official sources said the two secretaries finalised the new visa regime, which was discussed in May during talks between the interior secretaries of the two countries. However, the final agreement could not be signed on Pakistan’s insistence that it must be signed at the political level.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik confirmed to the media on Thursday that the visa regime would be signed during Krishna’s visit.

There are eight different categories of visas in the new regime, which include diplomatic, non-diplomatic, 36-hour transit visit, tourist, civil society, media and business.

The tourist visa will be limited to five destinations and will be valid for a period of six months, while the diplomatic visa category will offer visas to the consular, the consular mission and their family members.

‘Positive discussions’

Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani told reporters that the two sides had “positive discussions”, adding that the water issue and Kashmir dispute needed to be addressed. Jilani said a report detailing the progress so far made in the second round of talks would be presented before the two foreign ministers on Saturday.

Step-by-step approach 

Talking to reporters on his arrival at the Chaklala airbase, the Indian external affairs minister said Pakistan and India needed a step-by-step approach to resolve all their contentious disputes.

“The two countries are heading in the right direction,” Krishna said, reminding that all issues cannot be resolved at once.

Commenting on the issues of Siachen‚ Sir Creek and trade between the two countries‚ Krishna said India and Pakistan are moving forward in a gradual manner.

Krishna calls on president, Prime Minister

Krishna also held separate meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.

President Zardari told the Indian foreign minister that the two countries must now move beyond the reiteration of their positions to more substantive results. He also pointed out that the two neighbours must not allow the derailment of the normalisation process.

“In this regard, the president also suggested reviving the anti-terrorism mechanism comprising representatives of the foreign office, home/interior and intelligence agencies of the two countries,” President Zardari was quoted as saying in an official statement.

The president said frequent interactions of the leadership of both countries would help provide impetus to efforts for ensuring peace and creating better understanding on various issues.

Krishna also called on Prime Minister Ashraf and discussed bilateral relations. They exchanged views on continuation of the peace process.

Prime Minister Ashraf said Krishna’s visit is of great importance as the people of both countries desire good relations.

“We must learn from the past. We cannot change neighbours,” he said, adding that Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek and other issues needed to be resolved with a positive approach.

The premier also told the Indian foreign minister that there was political consensus in Pakistan over having good relations with India.

(Read: Setting the ground )

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Setting the ground</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433087/setting-the-ground</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433087/setting-the-ground#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 07 Sep 12 18:21:52 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=433087</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[We must hope that Pakistan and India will continue to move towards the ultimate goal of long-lasting peace.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[India’s almost invariably stoic External Affairs Minister SM Krishna has struck a note of some excitement as he begins a three-day visit to Pakistan for talks with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar. Mr Krishna’s enthusiasm, expressed on the eve of his visit in an exclusive email interview with this newspaper is encouraging, as is the new buoyancy in his tone. He says that he brings with him a message of goodwill and hopes his visit can pave the way for the solution of important bilateral issues. The minister also hoped that a visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would also be made possible. Talk of this important trip has been heard several times before, most recently when PM Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari met on the sidelines of the NAM Summit in Iran.

But aside from the symbolism of a visit by the Indian PM, there are other, more practical matters to deal with. Mr Krishna said that a patient, consistent approach and sufficient perseverance could lead to the solution of entrenched issues such as Sir Creek and Siachen. Certainly, an effort must be made to sort these issues so we can progress towards a true easing of tensions and take on that key issue of Kashmir. Mr Krishna also confirmed that on this visit, a new visa regime, already agreed on at secretary-level talks, would be finalised and greater access would be given to people to move across borders.

All this is significant; but what is most important is that Pakistan and India have reached out to each other again, with the 2008 Mumbai attack and its damaging aftermath finally put aside. However, one must not forget that the peace process has and will remain extremely prone to accidents for a long time. Therefore, the two governments should take extra care not to send their respective media on wild goose chases against each other by leaking any negative development. Negatives should always be discussed away from the media glare at the highest institutional levels so as not to jeopardise the overall peace process. We must hope that the neighbours will continue to move towards the ultimate goal of long-lasting peace. Mr Krishna’s visit constitutes a key stepping stone in this process, with his quite evident eagerness to move on, offering a great deal of hope for the future.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>There is no domestic acceptance of talks with India: Hamid Gul</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433041/there-is-no-domestic-acceptance-of-talks-with-india-hamid-gul</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/433041/there-is-no-domestic-acceptance-of-talks-with-india-hamid-gul#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 07 Sep 12 14:40:27 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[web.desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=433041</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Former ISI chief says Pakistanis don't trust India one bit, there is no scope for peace talks.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Hamid Gul said that there was no domestic acceptance in Pakistan of talks being held with India because of the perception that it was being done under US pressure, reported news agency ANI on Friday.

Gul, in an exclusive interview to ANI, said that there was no scope of the talks as nobody in Pakistan believed in them. “This is being done under US pressure. There is no domestic acceptance for any peace talks with India, because Pakistanis don’t trust India one bit,” Gul was quoted as saying.

The former intelligence chief also expressed doubts over India’s intention on issues including Sir Creek, Siachen, Kashmir and Balochistan and maintained that no one other than only a few Pakistani traders, who will benefit from India getting the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status, believe in peace talks.

India in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Balochistan

Gul, during the interview, also claimed that India is fighting a proxy war in Afghanistan on behalf of the US. “Pakistan knows India’s intentions and it is not acceptable to us,” Gul was quoted in the ANI report.

He also lambasted India’s policy in Kashmir. “India has to accept that Kashmir is a disputed territory. What they are doing in Kashmir is not right, morally or legally. India is being used by the US as a bulwark in the region, and therefore, the pressure on the Pakistan Government to go easy on Kashmir. The conditions are such that Pakistan does not have much room for maneuver at this stage,” the report quoted Gul.

The former ISI chief further alleged that India was meddling “heavily” in Balochistan and affairs of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).]]>
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			<title>Analysis: What can we expect from the dialogue?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/432835/analysis-what-can-we-expect-from-the-dialogue</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/432835/analysis-what-can-we-expect-from-the-dialogue#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 07 Sep 12 05:01:36 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Ejaz Haider]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=432835</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Sceptics tend to focus on what hasn't happened and is unlikely to happen while optimists point to what has, and can.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will be meeting September 8 to review progress on the “resumed” dialogue process. Today, September 7, the agenda for that meeting will be prepared by the foreign secretaries. Should we expect something significant?


Depends on what one expects and how one perceives the significance or otherwise of a process that has seen many crests and troughs since 1997-98 when the two sides agreed on a dialogue design with eight baskets dealing with a range of issues.

Sceptics tend to focus on what has not happened and is unlikely to happen while the optimists point to what has, and can.

Consider peace and security and Kashmir, the two baskets Pakistan is most interested in and, not coincidentally, India least concerned about. If progress on these disputes, Siachen, Sir Creek and Kashmir, is the benchmark, sceptics win the round. Nothing substantial is going to happen. Pakistan will open with its stated positions; India will counter with its. For Pakistan, these are disputes; for India, issues.

The sceptics can also win a second round by arguing that the Indian position on these disputes has hardened. The world situation for India is propitious. India has developed a higher degree of arrogance that comes with more space for manoeuvring. It assesses that it can tire Pakistan out, forcing Islamabad to come round to resolving the disputes/issues on India’s terms. Even if that doesn’t happen, possession is nine-tenths of law and that will continue to works to India’s advantage.

Equally, however, India wants dialogue for two reasons: it needs to get out of a simmering conflict with Pakistan because conflict is not good for economic progress and it feels that the situation has forced Pakistan to come round to putting premium on enhanced trade relations, friendly exchanges and people-to-people contact. New Delhi also feels that movement in these areas could help it pull Pakistan in on the issue of terrorism, arguably the number one problem for India.

This being so, sceptics can partially or wholly dismiss the process.

But they are wrong. Consider.

Firstly, disengagement is no policy. India has learnt it the hard way; there’s no reason for Pakistan to take the same route. Secondly, normalising relations with India forms the backbone of Pakistan’s broader policy of having friendly relations with all the neighbours within and beyond the region. Peace is an essential condition for economic progress.

Thirdly, movement on trade and investment does not in and of itself dilute Pakistan’s position on the core disputes. The difference is that substantial progress on the disputes is not a precondition for movement in areas where cooperation is possible and a consensus can be developed. This entails moving from a direct approach, that didn’t deliver, to the strategy of an indirect approach.

Fourthly, trade and investment – leaving aside technical objections – have a way of improving the environment for dispute resolution by creating interdependencies and building trust. Finally, if Pakistan were to reject improvement of relations in other areas until the core disputes are resolved, the situation on the disputes would still remain the same. The policy to find areas of mutual interest, at the minimum, affords an opportunity to both sides to be able to deal with those disputes by fashioning the right environment.

This is true for both sides. India’s insistence that Pakistan deliver on terrorism, and specifically on the Mumbai case trials, goes against the logic of a dialogue and its own insistence in other areas of the process that talks must not be weighed down by preconditions.

On the plus side, Abu Jandal did not derail the dialogue just like Pakistan’s concerns over India’s machinations in Afghanistan have not interfered with the dialogue.

The review round will look at progress thus far and give clearance for the next phase of the dialogue process. Now that Interior Minister Rehman Malik has been chucked out of the equation, the agreement on the visa regime and its new categories will likely be finalised. There will also be discussions on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Pakistan. India wants to make the visit contingent upon Pakistan delivering something to Dr Singh, a euphemism for Mumbai case trials. That is a non-starter and implies interfering with the judicial process. Pakistan hopes that India will understand that its demand is untenable.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Krishna’s visit may bring glad tidings for Pakistani, Indian pilgrims</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/432837/krishna%e2%80%99s-visit-may-bring-glad-tidings-for-pakistani-indian-pilgrims</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/432837/krishna%e2%80%99s-visit-may-bring-glad-tidings-for-pakistani-indian-pilgrims#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 07 Sep 12 04:59:25 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[abdul.manan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=432837</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[According to sources, both countries’ foreign secretaries will finalise the visa regime draft.]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna’s visit to Pakistan may, in addition to easing visa restrictions for traders on both sides, bring welcome news for pilgrims across both sides of the border.


Sources privy to developments informed The Express Tribune that more religious ceremonies will be accessible to Muslim, Hindu and Sikh pilgrims, and the restriction barring them from visiting the other country more than once a year will likely be forgone.

Krishna, who is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan today (Friday), will sign an agreement pertaining to a new visa regime.

According to sources, both countries’ foreign secretaries will finalise the visa regime draft, prepared in their previous interactions, during the upcoming round of talks. Information received by The Express Tribune suggests that the final draft will incorporate recommendations to ease visa restrictions pertaining to various religious festivals and ritual ceremonies.

Under the Pant-Mirza Agreement of 1955, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh pilgrims from Pakistan and India have been allowed to visit the other country once a year to participate in any of the various religious ceremonies held in both countries. Sources said under the new visa regime, this restriction will likely be removed and pilgrims from both countries will be given unlimited chances to visit and participate in religious festivals in the other country.

An increase in the number of pilgrims allowed to cross the border proportionately to their population has also been recommended.

The number of religious ceremonies in Pakistan open for Indian pilgrims may also be increased. The two official Hindu festivals in Pakistan, which are open to Indian pilgrims, are the Hayat Pitafi festival at Mirpur (Shadani Darbar) and Katas Raj festival at Chakwal. Two hundred pilgrims each from across the border will be allowed to partake in the two festivals.  The third Hindu festival likely to be opened for Indian pilgrims is the Hinglaj Mata festival in Lasbela.

Likewise, the four Sikh festivals in Pakistan open for Indian visitors are the birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak, the death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, commemoration of Guru Arjun Dev’s martyrdom and Baisakhi Hasanabdal. Three thousand Indian pilgrims each will be allowed for both Baba Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary and Baisakhi Hasanabdal, while 1,000 pilgrims will be allowed for Guru Arjun Dev’s martyrdom day and 500 for Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s death anniversary.

The three other Sikh festivals in Pakistan likely to be opened for Indians are the Joti Jot festival, Gur Ram Das’s birth anniversary and the Saka festival in Nankana Sahib.

Meanwhile, 500 Pakistani Muslims will be allowed to visit Ajmer Sharif for Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti’s urs (death anniversary).

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Krishna visit: Meagre expectations on both sides</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/432839/krishna-visit-meagre-expectations-on-both-sides</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/432839/krishna-visit-meagre-expectations-on-both-sides#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 07 Sep 12 04:50:45 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Indian PM’s visit in November hinges on substantive progress in the Mumbai attacks investigation.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Even though newspapers will be vigilantly monitoring the Indian foreign minister’s visit to Pakistan starting today, hopes of progress on the diplomatic front are pegged low in New Delhi and Islamabad despite recent efforts to build trust between the two neighbours.


Indian Minister for External Affairs S M Krishna is due to arrive in Islamabad on a three-day visit to review progress made in peace talks with Pakistan. The talks are part of the ongoing ‘composite dialogue,’ which resumed in early 2011 after remaining suspended for over three years due to tensions between the two countries after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Apart from formal talks, the Indian foreign minister is expected to meet key political leaders from both the ruling and opposition parties. The foreign secretaries of both countries will also meet on Friday (today) to prepare an agenda for ministerial-level talks, which were originally scheduled for July this year, but were delayed due to presidential elections in India.

‘Little chance of breakthrough’

In recent months, the two sides have made considerable progress to improve trade ties, but have yet to achieve a breakthrough on some of the most contentious issues.

The Indian prime minister while attending the Non-Aligned Movement meetings in Tehran, where he also met President Asif Ali Zardari, had said he would prefer not to visit Pakistan in the absence of measurable outcomes, in a clear reference to Pakistan bringing those guilty for the Mumbai carnage to justice.

The statement reflected the Indian foreign ministry’s bottom line: A high-level visit to Pakistan, without any substantive progress on suspected Pakistani abettors of the Mumbai attacks, would risk political ire at home. However, Pakistan believes that the peace process must not be held hostage to an isolated incident.

A Pakistan foreign ministry office official told The Express Tribune that the foreign ministers of both countries would review the progress made during the second round of peace talks and firm up a roadmap for the next phase.

“There is little chance of any major breakthrough,” said the foreign ministry official when asked about the likely outcome of fresh talks between the two countries.

However, sources said both countries may sign a new visa regime during Krishna’s visit. In May, Pakistan and India finalised a new visa regime aimed to discard decades-old travel restrictions on cross-border movement of their citizens. But the accord could not be formally signed, apparently due to Pakistan’s insistence that it must be inked at the political level.

On the other hand, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is personally seen as being bullish and hopeful that a breakthrough in ties may still happen. Both sides, however, are dealing with a narrow window to resolve longstanding issues. If the Indian PM doesn’t make his trip to Pakistan in November, both countries will begin preparations for election year, which is 2013 in Pakistan and 2014 in India.

Mumbai attack deadlock

Meanwhile, Alok Bansal, a retired officer of the Indian navy, believes that since Pakistan has consistently denied allegations pertaining to the Mumbai attacks, maintaining that India has not given it incontrovertible evidence about their involvement, it was unlikely that the two countries would make any concrete progress during the current visit.

“It would have been extremely difficult for the two governments to move from their stated positions on this issue at the best of times. The inherent weakness of the two governments at this juncture makes it virtually impossible,” Bansal added.

Be that as it may, Bansal said it wasn’t necessarily all doom and gloom. He believes the current round of talks could see the resolution of the Sir Creek dispute, for which joint survey has been completed, adding that the development could facilitate the delineation of maritime boundary between the two countries.

“Similarly, the perceived infringements of the Indus Water Treaty with respect to the three western rivers traversing through Jammu and Kashmir are more a matter of perception than reality and can easily be resolved by greater transparency and interaction,” said Bansal.

Meanwhile, experts and analysts agree that positive developments in trade, transit and commerce can be expected during Krishna’s visit. According to sources in the Indian civil aviation ministry, India has sought talks with Pakistan on a direct air link between Islamabad and New Delhi, with additional flights between business centres. An Indian official said the issue would be discussed at the commerce secretary-level talks due later this month, if Islamabad responded positively to the proposal.

Echoing earlier statements by the Indian government, Krishna called for the ‘right’ atmosphere during his visit and stressed for bringing those guilty for the Mumbai carnage to justice, in an exclusive interview to the Press Trust of India.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>I bring a message of goodwill: Krishna</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/432857/3-day-visit-i-bring-a-message-of-goodwill-krishna</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/432857/3-day-visit-i-bring-a-message-of-goodwill-krishna#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 06 Sep 12 23:18:03 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[&quot;India wants Islamabad as a strong and stable “partner”,&quot; says S.M. Krishna.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Never one to betray unnecessary excitability, India’s foreign policy point man, the stoic External Affairs Minister Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna, has struck some encouraging notes ahead of his visit to Pakistan in an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune.

Among other things, he stressed that India wants Islamabad as a strong and stable “partner” – and pointed out that Pakistan’s geographical location puts it in an ideal position to be a bridge between South and Central Asia.

Scheduled to arrive in Pakistan today (Friday) on a three-day visit as a part of the composite dialogue process, Krishna is to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar, as well as other top political leaders on a range of issues.

His visit comes after substantive progress has already been made on the trade and commerce front between Pakistan and India, and could lay the groundwork for an even higher-level visit: that of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Krishna spoke to The Express Tribune over email on the eve of his arrival, talking about everything from trade to terrorism, prisoners to politics and from Consulates to Kashmir.

The following is the text of entire interview, uncut.

Q: Should we expect any major breakthrough on some of the contentious issues hampering improved relations between Pakistan and India when Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh travels to Islamabad later this year?

A: Let me begin by saying that I bring message of goodwill and serious intent for dialogue from the Government and the people of India for the Government and the people of Pakistan. India is desirous of building a relationship of mutually beneficial all-round cooperation with Pakistan.  We would wish to see Pakistan as our strong and stable partner in pursuit of peace, progress and prosperity in our region.

During their recent meeting on the sidelines of the NAM Summit in Tehran, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh thanked President Zardari for his gracious invitation to visit Pakistan. Dr Singh also said that he attached great importance to normalising relations with Pakistan, and was keen to visit Pakistan. It is also clear that the right atmosphere needs to be created for the visit. It would need to be prepared well to have a substantive outcome, which could strengthen significantly the process of building a constructive relationship with all round co-operation between the two countries. Prime Minister Singh also mentioned to President Zardari that there must be a general feeling that Pakistan was doing all that it can to deal with terrorism directed against India from Pakistan’s soil. In keeping with the desire of the two leaders, I shall explore with Her Excellency Hina Rabbani Khar the possibilities of what can be achieved to facilitate a purposeful visit of the Prime Minister.

Q: Why are the two---India and Pakistan-finding it almost impossible to come to some kind of agreement on Siachen and Sir Creek----an agreement based on give and take?

A: India is committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through peaceful bilateral dialogue to find practical and pragmatic solutions.  Given the complexities of our bilateral relations, we have to be patient as we move forward and build more trust and confidence in each other. There is nothing that cannot be achieved through patience and perseverance. At the same time, we should not lose sight of the considerable progress made by the two countries over the last one year or so in regard to trade and commerce, which has enormous potential to contribute to the progress and well-being of people on both sides; as well as Cross-LoC trade and travel facilities. During my visit, I also hope to conclude a liberalized visa agreement, which will give further boost to people to people contacts.

Q: There has been a lot of talk about cooperation between the two countries to fight terrorism and drug trafficking but very little concrete progress. What are the reasons for this slow motion on these issues, potentially dangerous for the societies of both India and Pakistan?

A: Terrorism is the most serious threat to peace and security in our region.  It is in the interest of everyone to co-operate in fighting this menace effectively and comprehensively.  You may know that during their last meeting in May 2012, our Home/ Interior Secretaries reached an understanding to enhance cooperation between National Investigation Agency of India and FIA of Pakistan on issues of mutual concern, including Mumbai terror attacks investigation.  They also took an in principle decision to initiate negotiations on a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in order to strengthen mutual cooperation in criminal matters.  They further decided to have an early meeting of investigation agencies (Central Bureau of Investigation of India and FIA of Pakistan) of the two countries to work out technical details of moving forward on issues of human trafficking, counterfeit currency, cyber crimes and Red Notices. However, I would wish to emphasize that to be productive, co-operation against terrorism requires a high degree of trust. We hope that the forward movement from the discussions between our Interior/Home Secretaries and the above mentioned agencies will be able to generate the requisite level of trust and the feeling that India’s concerns on this issue are being addressed effectively.

As regards drug trafficking, we hope that a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Narcotics Control Bureau of India and Anti Narcotics Force of Pakistan in September 2011 to combat this menace will help enhance co-operation in this area.

Q: India does not seem to be even partially satisfied with the progress of the case in Pakistan against those (Lakhvi and company) allegedly involved in Mumbai attacks. What in your opinion would Pakistan need to do for India to feel satisfied with the progress?

A: India has repeatedly stressed, including at the highest level, the need for an expeditious and successful conclusion of the trial in Pakistan relating to those involved with the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Prime Minister Dr. Singh has recently mentioned that action in this respect will be a major confidence building measure, help in bridging the trust deficit and also help to build public support in India for the kind of relationship we would like to see between the two countries.

Q: How does India view Hafiz Saeed’s claims of his innocence in the Mumbai attacks?

A: Any such claim cannot withstand a case prepared well on the basis of the incontrovertible and undeniable evidence available against him and his well known track record of involvement in acts of terror against India.

Q: There are still many Indians in Pakistani jails and many Pakistanis in Indian jails. Would it not add to confidence building measures (CBMs) if the two immediately released at least those who have served their sentences and also those who are not accused of being involved in proven cases of espionage?

A: I completely agree that all such prisoners who have completed their sentences should be released and repatriated expeditiously.  The understanding reached between the Home and Interior Secretaries in this regard needs to be implemented vigorously.  I would like to mention that a large number of prisoners and fishermen have been repatriated from both sides over the last year or so. I am happy that efforts of the two governments in ensuring a humane approach in dealing with cases of fishermen and prisoners, especially women, elderly, juvenile, and those terminally ill or suffering from serious illness or physical / mental disability, have received significant support from the work of the bilateral Judicial Committee and the NGOs engaged in the task of ensuring the well-being and timely release of such individuals.

Q: In the same spirit-CBMs-would it not help if the two decided to allow setting up of their respective consulates in Mumbai and Karachi, so far blocked by Mumbai politics?

A: The significance of Mumbai and Karachi for trade and commerce and as pluralistic megacities is axiomatic.  Resumption of work by the Consulate General of India in Karachi and that of Pakistan in Mumbai will undoubtedly help in boosting trade and commerce and people to people contacts. I would not look for simplistic answers to why the re-opening of these consulates has not taken place so far despite a move to that effect some years ago. Suffice it to say that we are in favour of such a move and willing to discuss the necessary modalities with the Government of Pakistan.

Q: Officially the two countries seem to have no reservations about relaxing visa restrictions but when it comes taking a final decision on the matter, the process seems to get stonewalled by some unexplained reasons. Your views on this, please.

A: A new and liberalized Visa Agreement has been finalised. It seeks to introduce or considerably improve visa facilities for tourists, businessmen, elderly and those wishing to visit their relations and friends. I may add that India has unilaterally taken a number of measures, including expediting business visas, grant of non-police reporting visas in deserving cases and introduction of student and medical categories etc.

Q: Now that there seems to be a desire on the part of the two countries to forge closer all round relations, would the two governments consider increasing the frequency of rail, road and air communications as well as removing all restrictions on to and fro movement of media products and media persons?

A: India wishes to build a mutually cooperative and productive relationship with Pakistan. Increased connectivity is both a facilitator and a consequence of such a bilateral engagement. The existing trade and travel links between our countries will need to be expanded as people to people contacts as well as trade and commerce grow. We are willing to consider opening more trade points along the border with Pakistan. We also fully support the theme of the last SAARC Summit, which was very aptly put as “Building Bridges”. India has put forward concrete proposals for enhancing regional connectivity not only with Pakistan but within the entire SAARC region. We are cooperating with SAARC countries and other neighbours in developing multi-modal connectivity within SAARC and beyond and look forward to Pakistan joining these efforts actively.  India has also proposed two regional agreements - on Motor Vehicles and Railways in the SAARC framework.  Pakistan’s geographical location puts it in an ideal position to be a bridge between South and Central Asia.  The new trade and energy highways passing through our countries can bring prosperity commonly associated with the Silk Route of the bygone era.

People are at the heart of relations between any two countries, more so between India and Pakistan - countries which share much in their history and culture. Enhanced interaction between our peoples and exchanges in the sphere of media will go a long way in promoting better understanding of each other, and of this shared heritage and the need to preserve it.  Our films, music, TV serials, artistes and authors are popular in each other’s country. I am happy that many young artistes from Pakistan are finding increasing success in India.  We encourage this, for in the success of such people lies the seeds of greater trust and better understanding.

Q: Can you categorically say that the renewed peace process is irreversible? What if another Mumbai like attack happens, will it derail the process?

A: We have all along desired the peace process between India and Pakistan to remain uninterrupted. However, such a process cannot make much progress in an atmosphere of terror and violence. It would be unrealistic to expect that peace and cooperation can coexist with barbaric terrorism of the kind we saw in Mumbai. It is incumbent upon all countries to deal with terrorist forces effectively and comprehensively and to ensure that their territory is not used for acts of terror against others.

Q: Notwithstanding the current stated position of both Pakistan and India on Kashmir, can you realistically say the two countries find an out of box solution to the decades-old problem?

A: It would be recalled that the period between 2004-2008 saw the most fruitful and productive discussions ever between India and Pakistan, including on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. These discussions were based on the common understanding that while boundaries could not be redrawn, we could work towards making them irrelevant by enabling people on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) to move freely and trade with each other. We need to carry those discussions forward and build on them. I may add that as a result of Cross-LoC CBMs initiated during the above period, a large number of people from both sides of LoC have been able to visit their families on the other side, and goods worth crores have been traded through two designated points on the LoC. Over the last one year, Her Excellency Hina Rabbani Khar and I have taken some important decisions to improve further the trade and travel facilities along the LoC. The number of trading days has already gone up from two to four per week. Some other steps to be implemented include improvement of trade infrastructure, introduction of six-month multiple entry permits for travel, introduction of travel for tourism and pilgrimage in addition to visiting relations and introduction of banking facilities for Cross LoC trade. India is willing to open additional points along the LoC for trade and travel.

Q: India has got massive investment in the Southeast of Afghanistan and Pakistani leadership is always skeptical of your country’s presence there. How would you assure authorities here in Islamabad that New Delhi’s involvement in Kabul should not be seen as threat?

A:- India is engaged in developmental and humanitarian work in Afghanistan, at the request of the Government of Afghanistan, to assist the Afghan people as they build a peaceful, stable, inclusive, democratic and pluralistic Afghanistan.  India does not see Afghanistan as a battleground for competing national interests, nor assistance to Afghanistan for reconstruction and development as a zero sum game.  Our 2 billion US Dollar assistance programme in Afghanistan is largely aimed at building infrastructure, capacity building in critical areas of governance, health, education, agriculture and generating employment.  This has been developed in consultation with the Afghan authorities and is spread across all areas of that country. India’s sincere and friendly cooperation with Afghanistan, a country with which we share ties since antiquity, is not directed against any other country. I believe that there is growing realization of this reality in better informed segments of public opinion in Pakistan also. As countries with a vital stake in peace and stability in Afghanistan, we ought to be able to discuss our respective role in contributing towards such peace and stability.

Q: Is it possible that Pakistan and India can be on the same page on the Afghan endgame?

A: As countries in the region, both India and Pakistan naturally have a vital stake in a peaceful, stable, inclusive, democratic and pluralistic Afghanistan. Both the countries, and their peoples, stand to benefit enormously from Afghanistan thriving as a transit hub of trade and energy.  This vision has also been endorsed by the international community. Such an Afghanistan can come about only if there is no external interference in its affairs and the people of Afghanistan are left to make choices for their own future. India would respect such choices and expects all other countries to do likewise.

Q: How can you assure authorities in Pakistan that India is not in any way involved in the ongoing unrest in Balochistan?

A: We have said it on many occasions, at the highest level, and I reiterate it for the benefit of your readers, that India wishes to see a stable and prosperous Pakistan, acting as a bulwark against terrorism in its own interest and in the interest of the region.  We are highly disappointed at the allegations made against India from time to time in the context of unrest in Baluchistan, with which India has nothing to do.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan, India to sign customs cooperation deal soon: Report</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/431237/pakistan-india-to-sign-customs-cooperation-deal-soon-report</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/431237/pakistan-india-to-sign-customs-cooperation-deal-soon-report#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 04 Sep 12 13:58:47 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma says deal will be signed within a few weeks.]]>
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				<![CDATA[India and Pakistan will soon sign deals for cooperation and mutual assistance in customs and trade matters, said Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Tuesday as quoted by IANS.

Sharma, according to IANS, said that the agreements will be signed within a few weeks. He was speaking at the India-Pakistan Parliamentary Dialogue meeting in New Delhi.

The minister also clarified that the signing of the agreements was delayed due to a change in key bureaucratic positions in commerce ministries of both the countries, and asserted that India was committed to remove tariffs and non-tariffs barriers to boost bilateral trade.

Earlier, India approved reduction of 30% (264 tariff lines) from the Safta Sensitive list for Non Least Developed Countries (NLDCs) allowing the peak tariff rates to reduce to 5% within three years, as per agreed Safta process of tariff liberalisation on August 17, 2012. India has recently announced of taking out 264 items from the sensitive list under Safta.

Relations between Pakistan and India have significantly improved in recent years. The two countries concluded a new visa regime earlier this year that seeks to facilitate travel and trade between the two neighbours.]]>
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			<title>SM Krishna to visit Pakistan on September 7</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/429136/sm-krishna-to-visit-pakistan-on-september-7</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/429136/sm-krishna-to-visit-pakistan-on-september-7#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 31 Aug 12 12:25:00 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[The secretary-level talks between the two nations will take place in Islamabad from September 7 to September 9.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Taking steps to improve bilateral relations between India and Pakistan, Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna will visit Pakistan on September 7, Express News reported on Friday.

The secretary-level talks between the two nations will take place in Islamabad from September 7 to September 9.

The foreign ministers of both countries recently met during the 16th Summit of the Non Aligned Movement held in Tehran.

Earlier, the Indian Foreign Minister had said that friendship between Pakistan and India has become inevitable, especially after they have reconciled over several sensitive issues.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari had also invited Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan.

Presidential spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the invitation was sent through a letter via Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi]]>
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			<title>Pakistan rejects state role in Mumbai attacks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/403968/pakistan-rejects-state-role-in-mumbai-attacks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/403968/pakistan-rejects-state-role-in-mumbai-attacks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 05 Jul 12 06:21:52 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[I strongly reject involvement of any state agency in acts of terrorism in India, says Pakistani foreign secretary.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan rejected Thursday renewed Indian charges that Pakistani “state actors” were involved in planning and coordinating the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead.

“I would very strongly reject any insinuation of any involvement of any state agency in acts of terrorism in India,” Pakistani Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani told reporters after talks with his Indian counterpart Ranjan Mathai.

The two top civil servants in their respective ministries held two days of talks in New Delhi to bolster a peace dialogue undermined by fresh tensions over the Mumbai attacks and political flux in Pakistan.

Jilani said that both countries had managed to improve the level of cooperation, adding that the only way to move forward on this issue was to fill any gaps that remained.

The Indian foreign secretary, however, chose to add that the home minister had already addressed the question in some detail and had drawn attention to “the scale of the conspiracy and the extent of control”.

Of CBMs, Kashmir and friendly exchanges

Three major issues highlighted and discussed during the meeting were confidence building measures (CBMs), the Jammu and Kashmir issue and greater people-to-people contact and friendly exchanges.

Speaking to the media, Mathai said that the dialogue had contributed to a better understanding of “each others’ positions”.

“While we might not agree on all issues, we do agree that relations between our two countries have to be normalized,” he said, adding that there was determination on both sides to take the dialogue forward “with an open mind and a constructive spirit”.

The issue of peace and security was discussed in a comprehensive manner. Both sides emphasized the need of mutual understanding through constructive dialogue and both countries recognised that terrorism was a continuing threat to peace and security.

They reaffirmed the strong commitment of both countries to fight and eliminate terrorism in an effective and comprehensive manner.

The foreign secretaries had a comprehensive exchange of views on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and agreed to continue discussions in a “purposeful and forward-looking manner” with the view of finding a peaceful solution by “narrowing divergences and building convergences”.

Finally, Mathai drew attention to the importance of greater people-to-people contact and friendly exchanges and “building a relationship of trust and friendship between the two countries.

Jilani, thanking Mathai for his generosity and gracious treatment, said that he brought to the people and Government of India a message of goodwill, peace and cooperation from the people and Government of Pakistan.

He said that talks with his Indian counterpart on peace and security including CBMs, Jammu and Kashmir and the promotion of friendly exchanges had been substantive.

“We held separate meetings for each segment which are part of the Pak-India dialogue process,” he said.
Jilani said that they reviewed progress on peace and security and agreed to convene separate meetings of the expert-level working group on nuclear and conventional CBMs.

The Pakistani foreign secretary told the media that he and his counterpart had also reviewed progress on several “cross-LOC intra-Kashmir CBMs”.

“We have agreed to convene a meeting of the joint working group on cross-LOC CBMs to streamline and strengthen travel and trade arrangements,” he said.

Jilani, agreeing with his Indian counterpart that there was no alternative to dialogue and constructive engagement, said that both countries were important in South Asia and have a special responsibility to promote peace and prosperity in the region.

“We are not only close neighbors, we are also partners in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC),” he said.

“We make serious and sincere efforts towards building mutual trust and applying political will in resolving all outstanding issues through peaceful means and continue to work for promotion of peace harmony and cooperation,” he added.

Jilani said that he had come to declare the mandate of the leadership of Pakistan to promote bilateral relations.

“Let me assure you of our sincere desire to make every effort to resolve our differences and move forward,” he said.

Abu Jundal and peace talks

Answering a question related to the Mumbai attacks and the recent development in the form of Abu Jundal, Mathai said that Pakistan bringing the guilty to justice would be the biggest confidence building measure for Indians.

“The arrest and the ongoing interrogation of Abu Jundal has now added urgency to this matter,” said Mathai, adding that an investigation was underway and the country would “pursue this matter with determination to its logical conclusion”.

Jilani, answering the same question, said that terrorism is considered a common enemy of both countries but playing the blame game was not constructive and might hinder progress on the issue.

He said that both countries needed to go from adversarial to positive relations.

“Terrorism is an important issue and we need serious efforts for resolving it,” he said, adding that the he had assured his Indian counterpart that whatever evidence India has should be shared with Pakistan and that the country would “even be willing to offer a joint investigation into the whole affair”.

Setbacks in trade ties

In response to a question on whether the latest development in the Mumbai attacks issue would create a setback in trade ties, both foreign secretaries said it should not be so.

“The forward movement on economic and commercial cooperation between India and Pakistan is really a welcome development and a win-win proposition for both sides,” said Mathai.

He said that India looked forward to making progress on the trade track in accordance with the roadmap which has been agreed upon by both sides but at the same time, the country was very conscious as terrorism poses a continuing threat to peace and security and the full normalisation of bilateral relations.

“In this regard, we have reiterated the firm and undiluted the commitment of the two countries to fight and eliminate this scourge and bring those responsible to justice,” said Mathai adding that India expects the realisation of this commitment and looks forward to its fulfillment.

Jilani answered the question by stating, “I hope not. There should be no setback as it is something we cannot afford.” He reiterated the need for intensified cooperation.

“Our home ministries and interior ministry should meet more often and enter comprehensive cooperation in order to defeat forces of terrorism,” he said.

New Delhi suspended a four-year peace process with Islamabad after the attacks on India’s financial capital by 10 gunmen.

The full peace dialogue only resumed in February last year.

In Thursday’s joint-statement, the diplomats said that a meeting between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan was now scheduled for September.]]>
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			<title>Fresh tensions cloud India, Pakistan peace talks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/403427/fresh-tensions-cloud-india-pakistan-peace-talks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/403427/fresh-tensions-cloud-india-pakistan-peace-talks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 04 Jul 12 06:04:18 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=403427</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Talks have been soured by arrest of Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari, suspected of being key handler for Mumbai attackers.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Top Indian and Pakistani foreign ministry officials met Wednesday to bolster a fragile peace dialogue undermined by fresh tensions over the 2008 Mumbai attacks and political flux in Pakistan.

New Delhi suspended a four-year peace process with Islamabad after the attacks on India's financial capital by 10 gunmen that left 166 people dead.

The full peace dialogue only resumed in February last year.

Wednesday's meeting between Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani stretched to two sessions covering peace and security, confidence building measures and Kashmir.

The two top civil servants in their respective ministries will hold further talks Thursday morning - followed by a joint press conference.

The atmosphere of the talks was soured by India's recent arrest of Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari, suspected of being a key handler for the Mumbai attackers who were members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.

India says Ansari has admitted helping to coordinate the deadly assault from a command post in Karachi, and his testimony has renewed Indian accusations that "state elements" in Pakistan were involved.

"It is no longer possible to deny that though the incident happened in Mumbai, there was a control room in Pakistan before and during the incident," Home Minister P Chidambaram said Wednesday.

"Without state support, the control room could not have been established."

Returning Tuesday from a visit to Tajikistan, Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna said the information extracted from Ansari would have to be corroborated with other sources.

"That is when we will have to make a value judgment whether Pakistan can be trusted or not," Krishna told reporters.

He also said it was a "matter of great regret" that Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed - accused of masterminding the 2008 attacks - was still "moving freely in Pakistan".

The United States has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to Saeed's conviction.

Pakistan has indicted seven people for their alleged role in the Mumbai attacks but their trial, which began in 2009, has been beset by delays.

Thursday's foreign secretaries' meeting was to have taken place at the end of last month, but was postponed in the uncertainty that followed the Pakistani Supreme Court's dismissal of Yousaf Raza Gilani as prime minister.

"No one should expect any substantive outcome from this diplomatic meeting," G Parthasarathy, former Indian envoy to Pakistan, told AFP.

"Who is the real leader in Pakistan and whom should India be talking to? The only significance of the meeting is: Yes, we met and we will continue to meet."

The foreign secretaries are expected to lay the ground for another round of talks between their respective foreign ministers - originally scheduled for July 18 but also postponed with a new date yet to be announced.]]>
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			<title>Composite dialogue: India, Pakistan foreign ministers' meeting postponed</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/399346/composite-dialogue-pakistan-india-talks-postponed</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/399346/composite-dialogue-pakistan-india-talks-postponed#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jun 12 06:11:16 +0500</pubDate>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=399346</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Further talks will be held between the foreign secretaries of the two countries on July 4 and 5 in New Delhi.]]>
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				<![CDATA[In light of the internal affairs of Pakistan and the upcoming presidential elections in India, talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries have been postponed till an undisclosed date sometime in August or September, Express News reported on Tuesday.

Talks between the foreign secretaries of the two countries which took place this month were to be succeeded by talks between Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and her Indian counterpart SM Krishna in Islamabad next month.

Further talks will be held between the foreign secretaries of the two countries on July 4 and 5 in New Delhi.

The talks were being held to discuss and, if possible, resolve issues between the two countries that have been ongoing for decades, including the Kashmir dispute and for reviewing review progress of the second round of the peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbours.]]>
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			<title>India, Pakistan begin Siachen talks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/391988/india-pakistan-begin-siachen-talks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/391988/india-pakistan-begin-siachen-talks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 11 Jun 12 07:54:42 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[It is the 13th round of talks between the two countries on Siachen.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Indian and Pakistani defence officials held a fresh round of talks Monday seeking to end decades of dispute over the Siachen Glacier, dubbed the world’s highest battlefield.

An avalanche on April 7 killed 140 people at a Pakistani army camp saw Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, call for a negotiated end to the stalemate and say that the glacier should be demilitarised.

But India, which captured the commanding peaks in 1984, sees the glacier as vital to monitor Pakistani positions below and important for the defence of its part of Kashmir, where a separatist insurgency has killed tens of thousands since 1989.

Pakistani troops have tried but failed to seize control of the sliver of territory, where sub-zero temperatures and high altitude have caused countless deaths.

The two days of talks between the most senior civil servants at India and Pakistan’s defence ministries were being held at the Pakistani ministry in Rawalpindi.

India’s Defence Minister AK Antony has warned against any breakthrough, saying that India would explain its “clear-cut position” on Siachen to the Pakistanis.

“Do not expect any dramatic announcement or decision on an issue which is very important for us, especially in the context of national security,” he said last week.

Twelve previous rounds of talks between the nuclear-armed rivals on Siachen have all ended in stalemate.

Pakistani officials were also tight-lipped about the talks.

“The two sides will discuss Siachen and other matters related to defence affairs,” Sohail Aftab, a spokesman for the defence ministry, told AFP.

The Indian delegation is being led by SK Sharma and the Pakistani side by Nargis Sethi. The Indian visitors also met Pakistan’s Defence Minister Naveed Qamar and a joint statement will be issued on Tuesday, Aftab said.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided by a heavily militarised Line of Control and which both countries claim in full.

Last year they resumed their tentative peace process, which collapsed after gunmen from Pakistan killed 166 people in Mumbai in November 2008.

Analysts say there is growing support in Pakistan for rapprochment with India, which could help boost its flagging economy and quell tensions on the eastern border as Pakistan grapples with a deadly Taliban insurgency in its northwest.

But India shares increasing US frustration with Pakistan’s unwillingness or inability to clamp down on havens used by militants who attack US troops in Afghanistan and who pose a threat to India.

India’s Cabinet Committee on Security discussed the Siachen issue at a meeting last Thursday, but no details were made public.

“Our stand on Siachen is well known to the other side and the talks would continue within those parameters,” an Indian defence official told AFP of the Indian military’s reluctance to withdraw from the commanding peaks.]]>
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			<title>India, Pakistan kick off oil talks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/385774/india-pakistan-kick-off-oil-talks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/385774/india-pakistan-kick-off-oil-talks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 29 May 12 13:39:51 +0500</pubDate>
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			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=385774</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Senior official says Pakistan would like to get diesel in Karachi and furnace oil in Punjab from India.]]>
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				<![CDATA[India and Pakistan opened talks Tuesday on Islamabad importing oil from its eastern neighbour in a bid to ease a crippling energy crisis, an official said.

The talks were held by senior civil servants from both countries' petroleum ministries at a hotel in Islamabad.

India has offered to export petroleum products to Pakistan to help it overcome an energy crisis which cripples the country's industry and leaves millions of people suffering during the hot summers and chilly winters.

"India has surplus petroleum products and wants to export it to Pakistan. If we can save some money by buying it from India, we will buy it from them," a senior official at Pakistan's petroleum and natural resources ministry told AFP.

The official attended the talks but spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

"We today discussed how to import products from India. We would like to get diesel in Karachi and furnace oil through the Wagah border. We are very interested in getting furnace oil in Punjab for the power plants," he said.

The official said quantity and price had yet to be discussed and that the cabinet would have to approve any future petroleum trade.

"We will discuss the issues related to quantity and price in a second session of talks scheduled in New Delhi in the first week of July and then cabinet will make a final decision on the proposals," he said.

Pakistan's annual requirement for petroleum products is around 80 million tons. The country imports 85 percent of its needs, the official said.

Last year India exported goods worth $2.33 billion to Pakistan, while its imports from its neighbour were worth $330 million.

Efforts are being made to boost Indian-Pakistan trade since Pakistan decided to grant India "Most Favoured Nation (MFN)" status by the end of the year.

Trade has been hampered by restrictions and tariffs – even now, direct cross-border traffic accounts for less than one percent of their global commerce.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan-India talks: New visa regime hits last-minute snag</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/384423/pakistan-india-talks-new-visa-regime-hits-last-minute-snag</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/384423/pakistan-india-talks-new-visa-regime-hits-last-minute-snag#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 25 May 12 23:17:08 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=384423</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Islamabad says agreement should be signed at political level.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Signing of a new visa regime between Pakistan and India was put on hold on Friday after Islamabad suggested that the agreement should be signed at the political level.


The accord was supposed to be inked at the end of two-day talks between the interior secretaries of the two neighbours on Friday.

However, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told journalists after meeting the Indian delegation, led by Home Secretary RK Singh, that the agreement on a relaxed visa policy was an historic development and should be signed at the “political level.”

Diplomatic sources said the Indian side came to Islamabad with expectations that the deal would be penned at the conclusion of talks. “Till last night, both sides were planning to sign the agreement on Friday,” said a source familiar with the development.

But, according to Indian media reports, Islamabad and I invite Indian Interior Minister Chidambaram to visit Pakistan to sign the document,” he added.

In New Delhi, India’s foreign secretary confirmed that the signing of the deal has been put off.

“We were ready to sign the agreement but some delay in the procedure led to a postponement,” Ranjan Mathai said on Friday.

Mathai said India had gone to the home secretary-level talks “fully prepared” to sign the new visa regime in accordance with the decision taken during April’s meeting between President Zardari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“But we also have reports that the Pakistani side referred to some delay in its procedure and the Pakistani interior minister’s desire for political participation” in signing of the pact, he said.

A joint statement issued after the talks attributed the delay to ‘some internal approvals’ required by Pakistan before the agreement is signed formally.

But it did confirm that the agreement had been finalised and would be signed at an early date.

Evidence against Hafiz Saeed 

The issue of Mumbai investigations was also discussed during the talks with the Indian side asking Pakistan to do more to bring the perpetrators to justice.

However, Islamabad apparently refused to take action against Jammatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed for lack of evidence linking him with the attacks.

“We will look into the additional information provided by the Indians. But let me make it clear that we cannot take action merely on hearsay,” Malik insisted.

Nevertheless, according to the joint statement, the Pakistani side provided an update on the ongoing trial and investigations on the Mumbai terror attacks.

“The Pakistan side reiterated its commitment to bringing all the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks to justice expeditiously in accordance with due process of law,” it said.

The two countries agreed to enhance cooperation between the National Investigation Agency of India and the Federal Investigation Agency of Pakistan on issues of mutual concern, including Mumbai terror attacks investigation.

On its part, India provided information on the ongoing Samjhauta Express blast investigation.

Release of fishermen, prisoners

Both sides welcomed the release of prisoners and fishermen, including those suffering from ailments, since the last round of home/interior secretaries’ talks.

It was agreed that those fishermen who have completed their sentences will be released by both sides within three months along with their boats, except where the boats have been lost, damaged or confiscated by the courts.

It was decided that prisoners, whose nationality status could not be confirmed either due to lack of information or due to the physical disabilities of the prisoner concerned, would be transferred to charitable institutions in India and Pakistan pending confirmation of their nationality status.

(Read: Visa matters)

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Visa matters</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/384109/visa-matters-2</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/384109/visa-matters-2#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 25 May 12 20:03:35 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[No better way to foster healthier relations between people on both sides than easier travel to each other’s countries.]]>
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				<![CDATA[There are some who may complain that the process of normalising relations with India has been virtually inanimate because both countries are still fixated on Kashmir and terrorism, and hence will never be able to find a solution to these problems. There may be some grounds for pessimism, but to completely dismiss the entire peace process would be a folly. The two countries took their latest — hesitant — steps towards peace when the interior secretaries of Pakistan and India sought to reach an agreement to ease their harsh visa regimes allowing businessmen, pilgrims and groups to visit either country on more flexible visas. Tourist visas are also planned; a first by either country. The negotiations have taken over a year to materialise but it has been worth it. There is no better way to foster healthier relations between people on both sides than to make it easier for them to travel to each other’s countries.

This planned visa agreement also shows that both governments are committed to the peace process. They are smart enough to realise that hawks on both sides have the ability to destroy any attempts at peace. Hence, the initial relatively small, non-controversial steps; once these lead to greater tolerance and understanding, Pakistan and India can move towards thornier issues.

Next, the two neighbours may want to consider demilitarising Siachen. In Pakistan, the idea has been proposed by surprising figures like opposition leader Nawaz Sharif. India, too, could take some unilateral steps like allowing Pakistani cricketers to play in the IPL and making it easier for artists to visit either country. As much as people may scoff at this step-by-step approach, in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks it is the only way to repair relations. India still places great priority on arresting and jailing Jamaatud Daawa chief Hafiz Saeed. We, however, have preferred to treat Saeed as an asset rather than an enemy of the state. It now may be time to ask ourselves if we would prefer to side with an unreformed jihadist or a neighbour which is the biggest economic power in the region.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>India’s evidence against Hafiz Saeed to be reviewed: Rehman Malik</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/384101/india%e2%80%99s-evidence-against-hafiz-saeed-to-be-reviewed-rehman-malik</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/384101/india%e2%80%99s-evidence-against-hafiz-saeed-to-be-reviewed-rehman-malik#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 25 May 12 13:45:33 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[ppi]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=384101</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Interior minister meets Indian Home Secretary RK Singh to discuss new visa regime.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik had said that evidence India sent against Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) founder Hafiz Saeed will be reviewed, Express News reported on Friday.

During the first day of the talks, India had shared additional evidence with Pakistan linking Saeed to the Mumbai attacks.

Speaking to the media after holding talks with Indian Home Secretary RK Singh, Malik said that Pakistan wants to resolve all issues with India for peace and stability in the region.

He added that Pakistan and India are working together to evolve a mechanism to implement new visa regime which was agreed in principle by both the countries, and added that the new visa regime would be signed in a short span of time.

Answering a question‚ Malik said that Pakistan had arrested a number of persons involved in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. Recently, a judicial commission of Pakistan had visited India and will submit its report before the court, he added.

'Pakistan delayed pact signing'

Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said that the only thing that remains for a liberalised visa regime pact between India and Pakistan to be signed, is the latter’s desire to have a heavyweight political involvement when signing the pact.

Speaking to media, Mathai said that the Indian team comprising Secretary to Home Minister, and heads of the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) had travelled to Pakistan “fully prepared” to sign the visa agreement as per the discussions between President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian premier Manmohan Singh during the former’s one-day trip to India earlier in April.

Pakistan has also invited Indian Home Minister Chidambaram, who maintains that he would visit the country at a convenient time, Mathai said.

It was previously believed that after formalities were completed in the Islamabad meeting between Home and Interior secretaries of India and Pakistan respectively, a pact would be signed when the Indian foreign minister visits Pakistan for bilateral talks in late July.]]>
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			<title>Secretary-level talks: Pak, India finalise new visa regime</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/383976/secretary-level-talks-pak-india-finalise-new-visa-regime</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/383976/secretary-level-talks-pak-india-finalise-new-visa-regime#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 25 May 12 00:13:10 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[kamran.yousaf]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=383976</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Joint statement on two-day talks expected today.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan and India have finalised a new visa regime that seeks to do away with the decades-old strict travel restrictions on cross-border movement of their citizens.


Understanding on the new agreement was reached here on the first day of talks between the neighbouring countries’ interior secretaries, said a Pakistani official.

The negotiations, which have stretched over a year, are part of the ongoing peace process, which has picked up momentum in recent months.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s Interior Secretary Khawaja Siddique Akbar and his Indian counterpart RK Singh discussed issues related to counter-terrorism, exchange of prisoners and the new visa regime.

While the two sides struggled to reach common ground on issues such as the trial of suspects of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the Samjohta incident, major progress was made on the new visa agreement. The new visa regime, which is expected to be signed today (Friday), will pave way for increased people-to-people contacts between the two countries.

The Indian home ministry said “the revised agreement inter-alia introduces the concept of group tourist visa, visa on arrival and a separate category of business visas.”

The visa will be a major facilitator for businessmen, who have in the past six months been encouraged by the overwhelming response at exhibitions in Lahore and New Delhi.

The arrangement will also be favourable for pilgrims on both sides.

‘Indian concerns’ on trial

As expected, the Indian home secretary voiced concern over what he called “slow progress” in the prosecution of the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.

“It seems that the progress in the judicial proceedings against them (persons charged with involvement) is very slow. Many accused persons have not been brought before the courts,” R K Singh told the media before the meeting with his Pakistani counterpart.

He added that India had shared additional evidence with Pakistan linking Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed with the attacks.

The Indian secretary also said that the Mumbai attacks and the Samjhota train tragedy should not be seen in the same context.

Responding to the reservations, Pakistan’s Interior Secretary Siddique Akbar termed the Mumbai trial a “sub judice matter”, saying that Islamabad was discussing all issues with New Delhi with an open mind.

The second round of talks will take place in Bhurban, Murree today, after which the two sides are expected to issue a joint statement.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan, India begin talks on ‘liberal’ visa regime</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/383591/pakistan-india-begin-talks-on-liberal-visa-regime</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/383591/pakistan-india-begin-talks-on-liberal-visa-regime#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 24 May 12 06:59:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[web.desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=383591</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Talks aim at finali­sing drafts on easing the visa policy and provid­ing facili­ties to citize­ns of both...]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan’s Interior Secretary, Khwaja Siddique Akbar, and his Indian counterpart, Home Secretary RK Singh, met in Islamabad today to finalise major changes in their decades-old existing strict bilateral ‘visa regime, over a two-day period.

These talks aim at finalising drafts on easing the visa policy and providing facilities to the citizens of both countries. A ‘liberal’ visa policy will be set for senior citizens and traders in particular.

Amongst the issues being discussed policies on immigration, barter trade and exchange of prisoners will also be finalised.

The Indian home secretary expressed dissatisfaction over Pakistan’s investigation into the 2008 Mumbai attacks and said that many of those involved in the incident have not been brought to courts yet.

He added that both the countries should play their roles in ensuring peace in the region.

On the second day of negotiations, a joint statement will be issued.]]>
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			<title>Indian delegation visit: Gilani reaffirms commitment to peace with New Delhi</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/340491/indian-delegation-visit-gilani-reaffirms-commitment-to-peace-with-new-delhi</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/340491/indian-delegation-visit-gilani-reaffirms-commitment-to-peace-with-new-delhi#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 23 Feb 12 04:46:50 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[War is no solution, asserts Indian parliament Speaker Meira Kumar.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Lauding the Indian prime minister’s peace efforts, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani expressed hope that the ongoing peace process between Pakistan and India would lead to a resolution of issues that have bedevilled the relationship between the two neighbours.


Speaking at a reception hosted in honour of an Indian parliamentary delegation headed by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar here at the Prime Minister House, Gilani added that Pakistan is committed to “result-oriented, constructive and productive engagement with India.”

The Indian speaker, along with members of Indian parliament, is currently on a five-day visit to Pakistan on the invitation of her Pakistani counterpart Dr Fehmida Mirza.

A statement issued by the PM House said that the Indian Lok Sabha speaker endorsed the view that all contentious issues between the two countries must be settled through dialogue. Separately, in an interview with a private television channel, Lok Sabha Speaker Kumar pointed out that “war is no solution to any problem and the two countries must shun the path of violence”.

In his remarks, Gilani lauded Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his efforts to seek peace between the two countries.

“I respect Dr Manmohan Singh from the bottom of my heart and I share his desire for peace,” said Gilani.

He emphasised the need for India and Pakistan to work together to eliminate hunger, disease and poverty in the two countries.

“We should think about the future of the people so they can have drinking water, health and education,” he said, adding that strong relations between parliaments of the two countries can prove to be vital.

“Governments come and go but love of people remains and your visit will pave the way for strengthening relations between the people,” he told Kumar.

In her other engagements of the day, the Indian speaker along with her delegation met the Pakistan-Indian Parliamentary Friendship Group (PFG).

The maiden meeting of the Pakistan-India PFG with Indian parliamentarians was jointly chaired by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Qamar Zaman Kaira and Indian Speaker Kumar herself.

It was agreed that dialogue was the only way forward in addressing the contentious issues between the archrivals and peace was the only way to regional prosperity and harmony.

In a gesture of goodwill, Kumar also planted a sapling of Mangolia Grandiflora in the lawn of the Parliament House along with National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23rd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Indian parliament’s speaker arrives on five-day visit</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/339920/indian-parliament%e2%80%99s-speaker-arrives-on-five-day-visit</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/339920/indian-parliament%e2%80%99s-speaker-arrives-on-five-day-visit#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 22 Feb 12 05:07:11 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[our.correspondent]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Kumar, Mirza agree dialogue only way forward to address contentious issues.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The speaker of India’s Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar, has arrived on a five-day state visit to Pakistan along with a parliamentary delegation comprising members of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha (the upper house and lower house of parliament).

The speaker will also meet President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and the Senate chairman during her visit. She will also travel to Lahore where she is scheduled to meet the governor, chief minister and speaker of the Punjab provincial assembly.

On Tuesday, the Indian delegation called on National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza, who was accompanied by Deputy Speaker National Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi and members of the Pak-India Friendship group.

In the meeting of the speakers of the Indian and Pakistani parliaments, it was decided that interaction between public representatives and legislators from India and Pakistan ought to be enhanced to remove misconceptions. Such a move would help “build bridges of understanding.”

Mirza said that granting the most favoured nation status to India would boost commercial activities between the two countries.

Kumar said she had brought with her a message of good-will, friendship, peace and prosperity for the people of Pakistan.

“The relationship between the two countries is not confined to politics and trade alone; rather it is based on emotional and cultural grounds,” she remarked.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22nd, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Trade talks: Sharma tries to put positive spin on slow progress</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/337739/trade-talks-sharma-tries-to-put-positive-spin-on-slow-progress</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/337739/trade-talks-sharma-tries-to-put-positive-spin-on-slow-progress#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 17 Feb 12 01:20:16 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[farooq.tirmizi]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=337739</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Indian commerce minister praises hospitality of his hosts .]]>
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				<![CDATA[For a man who had essentially been stood up, Anand Sharma appeared remarkably cheerful. If the Indian commerce minister was disappointed at Pakistan’s failure to liberalise its end of trade between the two countries, he certainly did not show it when he sat down for an interview with The Express Tribune.

“We had only one desire: that the thinking of the two nations changes such that trade relations between the two countries improve. And that was achieved on this trip,” said Sharma, delicately evading the question of whether he felt that Pakistan had backtracked on its commitment.

At issue was Pakistan’s failure to move from a  “positive list” – where only the items allowed for trade are defined and the rest banned – to a short “negative list”, which consists only of a few items that are disallowed for trading and legalising the rest. After the meeting between the commerce ministers of the two countries in Mumbai in November, it had been widely expected that Pakistan would do so during Sharma’s visit in February. Pakistan has not yet done so and only “reaffirmed” its commitment to do so by the end of the month.

Sharma appeared to be trying to put a positive spin on the matter: “The joint statement has reaffirmed this and even Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said this very clearly last night as well.”

The Indian commerce minister made it a point to appreciate the efforts of his host. “Our people are very impressed by the hospitality of the Pakistani people and the government,” said Sharma, referring to the delegation of Indian businessmen who have accompanied him on this trip. He described the delegation as the largest trade group that has travelled abroad from India.

Yet even as he appeared on the surface to have been forgiving of delays on the Pakistani side, the Indian cabinet minister seemed unwilling to talk about the issue that many Pakistanis see as the key to liberalising trade with India: non-tariff barriers to trade such as quotas, quantitative restrictions, and regulations that many businessmen and economists describe as burdensome.

When asked the question about non-tariff barriers, Sharma at first started talking about the reductions India had made in its tariffs and then changed track, referring to India’s growing international trade as evidence that all was well. “If it were true [that non-tariff barriers are a problem], then India’s trade would not have grown to the levels it has,” he said, adding that India’s exports and imports totalled $750 billion in 2011.

Sharma’s opinion, however, seems to be contradicted by the World Bank, which ranks India 109th out of 183 countries in terms of ease of trading across borders in its 2012 Doing Business report. The Indian commerce minister appeared to get mildly flustered at the mention of that ranking, which is a full 34 places below that of Pakistan. “No, I do not agree with that report. I will be speaking to our people who deal with the World Bank to clarify the matter. But we do not have to agree with every IMF and World Bank report.”

The Indian cabinet minister eventually admitted that non-tariff barriers were an issue and said that the three agreements signed between India and Pakistan in Islamabad on Wednesday were meant to address them.

Sharma’s denial seems ironic, considering how he had said earlier in the interview that “governments can only make policies and create the conducive environment for trade.”

The rest of his rhetoric also appeared solidly supportive of free markets. “We are against protectionism globally. India is speaking very strongly for liberal trade regimes... International trade used to be a small part of our GDP but now touches two-thirds of the Indian economy.”

This rhetoric, however, belies the political difficulties that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s administration has had in pushing through liberalisation reforms. Sharma admitted that political consensus had been difficult to achieve, but remained largely optimistic. “Consensus must not be confused with unanimity... I have not come without a political mandate. I have the mandate of my prime minister and my government. We have come with an open heart and an open mind.”

“Our 64-year journey is a story of lost opportunities,” he said. “We can either look at the glass as half full or half empty. I’d rather we look at it as half full.”

(Read: Trade ties with India)

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Trade ties with India</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/337456/trade-ties-with-india</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/337456/trade-ties-with-india#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 16 Feb 12 17:36:27 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[The Gilani government is better-placed than the Musharraf regime to grant the MFN status to India.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan has gotten stuck, once again, on the issue of giving India the Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) status as a requirement for free trade under the World Trade Organisation regime. The visiting Indian commerce minister, Anand Sharma and his delegation were persuasive on the prospects of bilateral free trade but the cabinet in Islamabad decided it had to further consult stakeholders before it opened the gates to Indian goods. Stakeholders, of course, means industries — or cartels — that want to be ‘protected’ by being put on the negative list, that is, the list of goods which India won’t be able to export to Pakistan.

One thought that the job of creating a negative list should have been completed in preparation of the current February visit of the Indian delegation, but there could be other reasons why Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani would want to go slow. He is in trouble with the judiciary, doesn’t enjoy good relations with the army, which controls the country’s foreign policy, is facing a bristling opposition in parliament, which will not be satisfied completely with the sop of the 20th Amendment and is trembling before a rising storm of concealed non-state actors within the so-called Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC) which won’t allow open trade with India.

The Gilani government is better-placed than the Musharraf regime to grant the MFN status to India. The Chambers of Commerce and Industry are united in their approval and most of the leaders in the industrial sector actually think India’s market is the next plausible target for them after the virtual destruction of the Pakistani market by terrorism. India gave Pakistan the MFN status in 1996; Pakistan is still dithering in 2012. The latter is also facing economic collapse because of its internal disorder and an unleashing of jihadi forces which the state can hardly control. Meanwhile, Indo-Palk trade languishes at $2.7 billion and ‘informal trade’ is touching $10 billion, all to the disadvantage of Pakistan’s exchequer.

The Indian side is understandably keen. It wants to open another trading point at Munabao-Khokhrapar on the Sindh-Rajasthan border, to prevent the concealed non-tariff barrier of a single inlet at the Lahore border. The Commerce Ministry in Islamabad was no less keen last year, as was apparent from its enthusiastic statements but come February, a lot of cold water has been poured over this enthusiasm by developments inside Pakistan. The layman is not able to grasp why the MFN is being given to ‘enemy’ India. Why call it the enemy? Because the media is bombarding his ears with how India is not yielding on Kashmir, is stopping Pakistan’s water through illegally built upriver dams, interfering in Balochistan and cooperating with the US and Israel to snatch Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal?

Warlike revisionist Pakistan doesn’t properly comprehend the importance of trade in the resolution of deadlocked disputes. Television anchors refer to India’s stubborn resolve not to discuss bilateral disputes and look at the MFN issue as a leverage that should highlight the ‘disputes first’ approach the world learned to set aside a long time ago. The Indian side is obviously less bothered about Pakistan — which it should have been because of the Mumbai attack — and has removed its objection to European Union’s decision to allow concessional trade in 75 Pakistani commodities. Of course, the Indian experts know that Pakistan has the right to protect itself against India’s dominant economy through the negative list and by insisting on the removal of all kinds of non-tariff barriers mounted by India unfairly against its imports.

The Pakistan Army had once expressed its ‘no objection’ to free trade with India. It needs to make another statement on this matter so that the jihadis gathered under the banner of DPC may quieten down a little, given the fact that ex-ISI bosses — one gathering in Peshawar organised by ex-Jamaat chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmad featured Generals (retd) Hamid Gul and Asad Durrani — attend its rallies.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17th, 2012.]]>
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			<title>Indian envoy to US foresees difficulties in normalising ties with Pakistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/326387/indian-envoy-to-us-foresees-difficulties-in-normalising-ties-with-pakistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/326387/indian-envoy-to-us-foresees-difficulties-in-normalising-ties-with-pakistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jan 12 10:51:28 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[web.desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=326387</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Nirupama Rao says India needs to urge Pakistan to realise need of acting on terrorism on a mutual basis.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Indian Ambassador to the United States (US) Nirupama Rao has said that while India has made “sincere” efforts to reduce the trust deficit with neighbour Pakistan, it realises that achieving the goal will be difficult, The Economic Times has reported.

Rao said:
This is not going to be easy. There is a lot of difficult terrain ahead. We recognise that. We are realist about it.
She said that trade and business between the two countries need to be augmented. She added that travel between India and Pakistan needed to be made easier.
In the region of Jammu and Kashmir we have consciously worked on putting in place confidence building measures that enable trade across the line of control, better transportation facilities so that people can connect more easily.
The ambassador said that India needs to urge its neighbour to realise the need of acting on terrorism on a mutual basis. Rao added that terrorism could trigger proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
We have been affected by clandestine nuclear proliferation in our neighborhood.
Relations between India and Pakistan have been plagued by border and resource disputes, and accusations of Pakistani militant activity against India.]]>
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			<title>Trust deficit with Pakistan shrinking: Krishna</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/289048/pakistan-india-eye-better-ties</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/289048/pakistan-india-eye-better-ties#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 09 Nov 11 05:19:38 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=289048</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Khar says &quot;many, many more miles to move ahead.&quot;]]>
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				<![CDATA[The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan said Wednesday that trust between their countries had improved, providing the foundation for a renewed push at their troubled peace process.

India's SM Krishna and his counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar arrived at a South Asian regional summit in the Maldives speaking optimistically of the improvements in ties achieved during talks over the last few months.

Referring to a "very positive atmosphere" between the countries, Krishna said that the "trust deficit" with Pakistan was shrinking and that they should now look at a "joint strategy" to fight terror.

"I think our relationship with Pakistan is becoming a little more stable than what it was before," Krishna said as he flew to the Maldives, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

Khar, appearing briefly before reporters, also said that the environment was improved ahead of bilateral talks between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

"I can certainly say from our side that we look at this environment to have improved considerably. The trust deficit that typically existed between the two countries for many, many years has been reduced to a large order," she said.

Both leaders also acknowleged the difficult work to do, not least tackling the vexed subject of Kashmir.

"We have many, many more miles to move ahead," Khar said.

Last week, Pakistan's cabinet announced it had approved a proposal giving India the status of "most favoured nation" which would help open the highly restricted flow of goods over their border.

Washington has actively pushed them together, hoping that a lull in tensions will enable Pakistan to concentrate on fighting militants on its western border who are active in Afghanistan.

Khar said the threat of terrorism was a challenge to both India and Pakistan and will be addressed by leaders at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit.

Efforts to reduce tensions have been complicated by the increasing influence of Afghanistan in the bilateral equation.

India and Afghanistan signed a wide-ranging strategic partnership deal last month, leading to suspicion in Pakistan which is vehemently opposed to its arch-foe meddling in what it considers its backyard.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will also attend the SAARC summit, along with the leaders of other member nations Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Correction: An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated that the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh made the statement at the SAARC Summit. The error is regretted.]]>
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			<title>Mumbai attacks: Pakistan asked to probe ‘official complicity’: Krishna</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/223342/india-calls-for-action-against-juds-hafiz-saeed</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/223342/india-calls-for-action-against-juds-hafiz-saeed#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 11 04:40:35 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Aditi Phadnis]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=223342</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Minister says he conveyed displeasure over Khar’s meeting with APHC leaders.]]>
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				<![CDATA[In a bid to sell the ongoing Pakistan-India dialogue to the Indian parliament, Foreign Minister SM Krishna told fellow lawmakers that visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had been informed how unhappy India was at her meeting with leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) during her recent visit, before the bilateral meetings took place.


India also asked Pakistan to act on the dossiers regarding seven individuals suspected of being involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the need to provide voice samples, he said.

“Pakistan was asked to investigate the links with some elements in the Pakistani security agencies that had emerged from the evidence presented in the Tahawwur Rana trial in the United States,” Krishna told the Indian lawmakers.

“I called for credible and effective action against jihadi leaders such as Hafiz Saeed and terrorist groups such as Jamaat-ud-Daawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba,” he added.

At the beginning of every session of parliament, it is obligatory for the foreign minister to brief the legislators about the visits of important dignitaries in the inter session period.

Krishna told the lawmakers that the dialogue with Pakistan was moving forward briskly after the meeting of the two foreign secretaries in February 2011 in Thimphu, Bhutan.

India wants to reduce the trust deficit with Pakistan and move forward in a friendly manner, Krishna said. “I conveyed [to Pakistan] that India desires a stable and prosperous Pakistan, acting as a bulwark against terrorism, at peace with itself and with its neighbours,” he added.

Krishna’s statement will be considered the authoritative account of the meeting of the two ministers and will put parliament’s stamp on the resumed dialogue.

Appeasing the hawks

To appease the hawks in the house, Krishna said that he had asked Pakistan about the fulfillment of the commitments made during the home/interior secretary level talks in March 2011 on the trial and investigation, going on in Pakistan, in the Mumbai attacks case.

“According to her, Pakistan was not trying to abdicate responsibility,” Krishna said.

“On her meeting with the Hurriyat leaders, she informed me that Pakistan wanted to engage all stakeholders,” Krishna told the MPs.

On Jammu and Kashmir, the approach is to increase convergence and reduce divergence, Krishna said. He added that it was a matter of satisfaction for India that Pakistan had acknowledged the need to grant the most-favoured nation (MFN) status to India which would also help expand bilateral trade relations.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Small is beautiful on India-Pakistan front</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/220750/small-is-beautiful-on-india-pakistan-front</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/220750/small-is-beautiful-on-india-pakistan-front#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 30 Jul 11 17:11:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[jyoti.malhotra]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=220750</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Unspoken charge against Hina in Delhi was that at 34 years of age, she couldn’t possibly be anything but lightweight.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan’s foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar was always in danger of being miscast as an up-at-heel Cinderella by the Indian media during her visit to Delhi this week — and I plead guilty.

The lady’s fury is totally in order, too. Back in Lahore, when asked by waiting reporters to react to the Indian media’s description of her as a style icon, Hina snapped back. “There is paparazzi everywhere,” she said, implying that the Indian journalist’s obsession with her oversized Birkin bag (at Rs1.7 million, said the Times of India), her Roberto Cavalli sunshades and her coloured pearls (South Sea or Mikimoto?) was directly proportional to the limited attention it paid to all serious issues.

Now that’s a serious charge, and regretfully I must admit the beautiful Hina may be right again. The Indian media was so swept off its feet by the trappings of the vision from across the border, it failed to adequately note the path-breaking nature of the joint statement in which, for the first time in several decades, “the people” from both countries were put on top of the bilateral agenda.

In fact, the Pakistani media returned the compliment in some ways. The obsession with the Great Game in both countries abounds: Indian spies are found on sundry street corners in the big and small cities of Balochistan, the return to ‘strategic depth’ in Afghanistan is accompanied by a rush of adrenalin whether or not Kabul is interested in such a relationship with Islamabad in the first place, and Siachen and Sir Creek become coveted markers from where spheres of influence can be enhanced.

But look at what happened this time. The Pakistani side couldn’t possibly object to Delhi’s initiatives to increase interaction between Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control, or across the international border. The offer of “non-discriminatory trade” is  hidden deep inside the joint statement, an alias for most-favoured nation status. Let’s see how that pans out when Pakistan’s commerce secretary Zafar Mehmood comes to Delhi to talk to his counterpart Rahul Khullar. (And yes, both are Punjabi).

Actually, it may be a good thing that Hina Rabbani Khar stole the show last week. Pakistan’s “weapon of mass distraction”, as a fully paid-up member of India’s Twitterati set described her, has thrown such a cloud of stardust in the eyes of both medias that it allows both governments — and dare I say, Pakistan’s army, which takes a serious interest in foreign policy, especially with India — to underwrite the small-is-beautiful measures that hawks mostly misunderstand.

The unspoken charge against Hina in Delhi was that at 34 years of age, she couldn’t possibly be anything but a lightweight. She has very little experience, she belongs to Pakistan’s upper-class and is therefore as feudal as they come, and may be a front for the real powers that runs foreign policy, whether Ashfaq Kayani, Asif Zardari, Yousaf Raza Gilani or Rehman Malik.

Thing about Hina is, she’s stunning. There are so few men and women in public life who are so good-looking that the attention is natural. But instead of getting perturbed by the publicity, she would do well to remember that Indira Gandhi was also called a goongi gudiya when she first entered politics — within five years, the country was calling her Durga, the mother goddess.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31st, 2011.]]>
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			<title>Touching base: PM, president laud progress with India</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219896/pakistan-desires-good-neighbourly-relations-with-all-regional-countries</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219896/pakistan-desires-good-neighbourly-relations-with-all-regional-countries#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 30 Jul 11 05:30:10 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[agencies]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=219896</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Hina Rabbani Khar briefs Gilani, Zardari on her visit.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Friday reiterated that Pakistan desires to have good neighbourly relations with all regional countries, including India, in the larger interest of the welfare of the people of South Asia.


Gilani, who met Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar at the Prime Minister Secretariat, said the continuation of dialogue process would help both countries facilitate discussions on all issues of concern.

The foreign minister briefed the prime minister on her visit to India and outcome of the talks. Gilani said that it was an encouraging sign that talks between the two countries were helping develop better understanding of each other’s point of view on all issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

He was also pleased to learn that the Indian Prime Minister would be visiting Pakistan at his earliest convenience.

Earlier, Khar had briefed the Prime Minister about the outcome of official talks with the Indian delegation.

She also briefed him about her meetings with the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, leader of the opposition and the Kashmiri leaders.

The foreign minister also called on President Asif Ali Zardari here at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

The minister briefed the President about her visit to India and her discussions with the Indian leadership.

Expressing satisfaction over the progress made during her visit, Zardari said, “Pakistan welcomes commitment of the two sides to work together in seeking early and amicable solutions to all issues between the two countries.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Friendly words</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219957/friendly-words-2</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219957/friendly-words-2#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 29 Jul 11 18:13:56 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[We certainly hope that Ms Khar will remain committed over the future months to this ideal of dialogue with India.]]>
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				<![CDATA[For a very long time now, indeed since the Mumbai attacks of 2008, there has been a distinct element of tension as far as ties between India and Pakistan go. Even when dialogue has taken place, it has frequently run into barriers and blockades of all kinds.

For this reason, the assurance by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on her return home from a crucial meeting in New Delhi with her Indian counterpart that this time talks would not stop is extremely reassuring. The foreign minister, who appears to have handled her first assignment extremely well, has continued the tone noted immediately after the talks on both sides and expressed a desire for a better future in terms of relations between both countries. We certainly hope that Ms Khar will remain committed over the future months to this ideal of dialogue with India and a closing of the gap that exists between the two countries. For this, she needs the support of all elements and institutions within her own country. Indeed, this also holds true for India, where an equal number of hawks have, through the decades, made their attempts to hold back the peace process. The governments on both sides need to work on how to neutralise these elements and keep them at bay.

While the omens seem good, there is also some need for caution. In an unusual statement, the Indian Foreign Office has said that “inferences” about satisfaction being expressed over the Mumbai investigation were inaccurate. It is important not to allow any breach of the trust that has been built up between the two sides. In this sense, Hina Rabbani Khar also did well to meet the opposition leaders and other political figures in India, helping her to establish the kind of understanding vital to building solid ties. For the sake of the people of both countries who could benefit so greatly from peace, we must hope the foreign minister is correct when she says the process of discussion and dialogue will not again be interrupted as efforts to repair the damage of the past are speeded up.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>Pakistan-India dialogue: Khar says this time the talks will go on</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219647/pakistan-india-dialogue-khar-says-this-time-the-talks-will-go-on</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219647/pakistan-india-dialogue-khar-says-this-time-the-talks-will-go-on#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 29 Jul 11 04:26:41 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[abdul.manan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=219647</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[India’s Foreign Office rejects claims that it was soft on Mumbai attacks .]]>
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				<![CDATA[Returning home after her most important assignment as foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar on Thursday said the dialogue process with India will no longer be interrupted.

Addressing a press conference on her arrival at the Lahore airport, the minister said both countries had agreed that the dialogue must be a continuous process, adding that talks lose credibility when disrupted.

Khar said a new level of engagement had been established between Islamabad and New Delhi. “I met Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna and the talks were positive and constructive,” she said.

Khar said that she met political leaders across the country, including the leader of opposition, adding that India wants to resolve all issues including the Kashmir dispute.

The foreign minister said her meeting with politicians in Indian Kashmir had been highly criticised in India, while earlier in the day, Kashmiri Hurriyet leader Syed Ali Gilani was placed under house arrest again after his return from New Delhi where he had met Khar.

Meanwhile, facing criticism that India had given more than it had got in talks with Pakistan, India’s Foreign Office said on Thursday that there had been no dilution of the stand on terrorism.

The Indian government, in an unusual intervention said: “We categorically reject inferences that there was any expression of satisfaction on “the progress on Mumbai trial”. WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ADITI PHADNIS in New Delhi

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th,  2011.]]>
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			<title>India is the revisionist power</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219335/india-is-the-revisionist-power</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219335/india-is-the-revisionist-power#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jul 11 17:17:48 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Ejaz Haider]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=219335</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Implying that India can’t have peace until Pakistan accepts India’s diagnosis will not beget India a viable...]]>
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				<![CDATA[In his famous essay, What is a Nation, the French philosopher, Ernest Renan, argued that selective amnesia — “forgetting”, as he puts it — is an important part of modern nation-building. This is achieved in many ways, but most importantly by controlling the narrative. The narrative determines the core aspects of the identity of a state. It is successful when that identity is internalised by the peoples to a point where those core aspects are not disputed, and where any external challenges to them are simply not entertained.

Using this central benchmark — I make no attempt here to problematise this process — we have to concede that Pakistan lags far behind India in defining the core aspects of its nationhood. Not because India is not internally troubled, which it is, but because India has developed a centre that holds it together. The centre drives India and perpetuates the narrative, deflecting the world’s attention away from India’s musty underbelly: Abject poverty, very high levels of corruption, the near-absence of the state’s writ in the Red Corridor, terrible human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir, crimes against women and, yes, Taliban-style panchayats.

And while the media highlights internal troubles, it is largely pliant to the state when it comes to presenting the state to the outside world and is the most effective vehicle for the state narrative.

It is a common practice for states to sell the narrative internally. But it is a greater exercise in soft compellence to sell it to other collections also. An even greater success would be to make one’s narrative acceptable to sections of another collection with whom one is locked in conflict.

India has done this with Pakistan and, as a realist, I salute them for this success. Of course, India’s success in this regard is directly proportional to Pakistan’s failure to sell itself to its people. This, as I have noted on a number of occasions, is the biggest threat to Pakistan.

One consequence of this is a large number of us swallowing, hook, line and sinker, India’s narrative on its conflict with Pakistan. Here are some examples:

India is a status quo power while Pakistan is a revisionist state; India just wants to live in peace; there’s nothing about Pakistan that interests India; India, the Little Red Riding Hood, has to keep the world’s fourth largest military because Pakistan attacked it four times — ’47, ’65, ’71 and ’99. Let’s just take these up.

(NB: It’s quite another fact that every time Pakistan has tried to engage India on force rationalisation — nuclear and conventional — including as part of the 2004 dialogue framework, India shifts the goalpost by referring to China).

The term ‘status quo power’ is used cleverly in modern interstate relations. It ignores the direct and indirect influence — soft and hard power, and diplomacy — exerted by stronger states on the weaker ones in the former’s areas of concern by focusing instead on whether a state wants to capture another’s territory. Let there be no doubt, however, that rising powers are always revisionist states. They challenge an existing power configuration by spreading their influence and power. China is one; India is lagging far, far behind but following the same paradigm.

Pakistan is accused of being a revisionist state, primarily vis-a-vis Occupied Kashmir. And a part of our self-loathing intelligentsia has accepted this bunkum. Pakistan has no designs on India but Kashmir is not a part of India. It is a disputed area and that fact is also accepted by India. Because this will be deliberately twisted by the ‘what-abouters’, let me clarify that I am not advocating a war with India, merely stating a fact.

As for revisionism, Pakistan, within the region, is a status quo power because it checks India’s desire to project power in South, the West, and southern Asia. A neoliberal paradigm is possible if India is prepared to address the issue of Kashmir meaningfully. The last three years have clearly shown that the problem lies inside Occupied Kashmir. They have also shown that India remains singularly and callously unconcerned about the Kashmiris.

And what about the wars Pakistan is supposed to have thrust on India?

The 1947 war began as an indigenous uprising in different parts of the then State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&amp;K). It is a matter of historical record that Pakistan had no clear state policy on how to use force against India’s illegal invasion of J&amp;K. The ragtag Poonchis and other Kashmiri groups, with help from tribesmen and some elements of the Pakistani military, managed to capture the territory which now forms Azad Kashmir. If they hadn’t, Pakistan would have today needed just the present size of its army to defend the northern salient.

The 1965 war was a mistake. Much has been written about it inside Pakistan. But there is absolutely no reason to be apologetic about making an armed attempt to get back territory in occupation of an adversary. Pakistan never violated the Indian territory: It crossed what was then the CFL (ceasefire line). The fact is that it was India that aggressed against Pakistan directly when it attacked across, and violated, the international border.

As for India’s generosity, as mentioned by many Indian analysts, in returning to Pakistan the Haji Pir Pass, I have to give them full marks for dissembling! The Tashkent Agreement required the two sides to go back to status quo ante. India decided to keep Kargil because that secured its road to Leh, and return Haji Pir Pass to get back Chhamb and Jorrian because in that area we were dangerously close to the chicken neck. You cut off the chicken neck and you cut off India from Occupied Kashmir. But the problem is not Indian dissembling; it is our acceptance of this deceptive narrative.

And Pakistan attacked India in 1971!? This actually takes the cake. Ignore India’s full-fledged assault on then East Pakistan and trot out Pakistan’s attack in the west, an attack that came too late. That episode also opens the chapter in this region of covert war. Yes, it was introduced by India when it trained the Mukti Bahini; India repeated this exercise with Sri Lanka when it trained the LTTE. I don’t grudge India any of its actions. States do these things in their interests, perceived or real. But to present India as the babe in the wood? Nah; not happening.

Of course there is Kargil in 1999. More of us have blasted Kargil here, including this writer, than perhaps writers in India. It was a terrible operation at all levels. Worse, it came at a time when Pakistan and India were moving towards normalisation. That process should have been allowed to move forward and bear fruit. But let us not forget India’s occupation of the Saltoro Range, its violation of Pakistani posts along the LoC. In a conflictual model these things happen. Yet I will be the first to deduct marks from the Pakistani military on the Kargil operation. Still, the man who did it also became India’s best partner in peace.

Finally, implying that India can’t have peace until Pakistan accepts India’s diagnosis will not beget India a viable policy. Pakistan wants peace. But it doesn’t want to become a west Bangladesh, to use Stephen Cohen’s phrase. So, let’s get rid of the I-am-the-good-guy-here baloney and level with each other.

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2011.]]>
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			<title>India ready to resolve all issues: Khar</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219305/india-ready-to-resolve-all-issues-khar</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219305/india-ready-to-resolve-all-issues-khar#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jul 11 14:56:21 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=219305</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Stresses on importance of building an atmosphere of trust between the two countries.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar reiterated her stance on having an uninterrupted and uninterruptible talks with India over all outstanding issues and that it was vital to ‘clear the air’ between the two nations, normalizing ties, on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference following her arrival at Lahore Airport, Khar said that she could safely say that the delegation saw a reciprocity on part of the Indian foreign ministry and the Indian government to normalize and improve relations with Pakistan and to take them to a different level, that of a good, friendly and neighborly relations. She added that the a medium term objective of at least, is to make this process (talks) uninterrupted and uninterruptible.  She placated fears of another say-all-do-nothing round of talks, saying a lot of groundwork is needed to bring talks back on track.

FM Khar reiterated that the talks were open and honest with dialogue on practically every ‘prickly’ issue, whether at operation or strategic level, that exist between the two countries which was encouraging for a bilateral and constructive relations between both countries.

She cited the joint statement, issued after her talks with SM Krishna, for more details and mentioned the highlights, comprising LoC trade CBMs, engagements over peace and security, visa regime, Indus water treaty and its centrality between India and Pakistan and the intention to reconvene the Pakistan-India joint commission, which to her, were signs of ties returning to normalcy.

Khar mentioned that PM Manmohan Singh greeted the delegation warmly, expressing India’s sincerity and commitment over resolving all outstanding issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir issue. She also spoke of her conveying PM Gilani’s invitation to PM Singh for visiting Pakistan, which was accepted graciously, though the details are yet to be decided.

Answering a question, she reiterated that the bilateral process needs to be uninterrupted so as not to lose the momentum gained in recent years, in mere hours, hence the need to ‘clear the air’ right now and re-engagement was important with a forward looking commitment to work out all issues.

“As of now it is important for Pakistan to normalize relations with India, since it’s a pre-requisite for us in order to resolve the issues mentioned in the question”, Khar said.

The FM said that during the talks no one back tracked from their stated positions, legal and political position.

On her meeting with Kashmiri leaders, she said that she had conveyed Pakistan’s stated position on the Kashmir issue and that Kashmir was an important stakeholder in determining the (people’s) fate.

She admitted that, as of now, the ‘stated positions’ on issues, of both the countries, were diverging but she stressed upon reforming our policy towards India and build a trust between each other, instead of considering them as an enemy state, since India wants a peaceful Pakistan as well.

Khar said that we have had differences for years and will continue having them but both countries need to give our relationship a chance since it is important for the region and for people of both nations, stressing upon a ‘people centric’ approach since without security, there can be no development.

She said that we have had continuous talks with India over the water dispute and that we should protect the sanctity of the Indus Water treaty. There are operational difficulties but the sanctity of the Indus Water treaty was vital for Pakistan.

Talking on trade with India, she said that ‘sky is the limit’ in terms of increasing the business volume since both countries have a lot of potential.

On the Indian media’s obsession with her, she dismissed it as a ‘paparazzi’ reporting by them. She said she was there for serious talks.

Earlier this week, the Pakistani Foreign Minister was in India for peace talks, where in she met her counterpart SM Krishna, including India'a top leadership.

(Read: Pakistan-India talks: Hina Rabbani Khar arrives in New Delhi)]]>
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			<title>My goal is to unburden Pak-India relationship: Khar</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219086/my-goal-is-to-unburden-pak-india-relationship-khar</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219086/my-goal-is-to-unburden-pak-india-relationship-khar#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jul 11 05:54:43 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=219086</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Khar said Mumbai attacks probe was conducted at a faster pace than Samjhauta Express blast case.]]>
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				<![CDATA[The newly appointed Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Hina Rabbani Khar said that the Mumbai attacks probe was on schedule as a part of a judicial process on which the Pakistan government had no say.

She made these comments during an interview with Asian News International.

When asked a question about investigations into the Mumbai attacks, she compared the probe to that of the Samjhuta Express blast case and said that the Mumbai attacks investigation was conducted at a faster pace.

She further said that the interior ministers of India and Pakistan have met and a judicial commission is scheduled to come to India which will speed up the process.

Khar said that it was not in the interest of the government of Pakistan to delay the investigations and that the Indian media should ‘empathise’ with Pakistan, which has a judicial course of action.

The Foreign Minister admitted that the two countries have a history of festering hostility and that it has been an unbalanced exchanged ever since the independence of India and Pakistan.

She said it was her ‘goal’ to unburden the Pak-India relationship and that both the countries have to let go off the hostilities that they have held to for long.

Khar admitted that the two countries have contentions that can only be sorted out through “well-directed” dialogue.]]>
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			<title>Kashmir CBMs widely welcomed</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219041/kashmir-cbms-widely-welcomed</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/219041/kashmir-cbms-widely-welcomed#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jul 11 04:20:01 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[express]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=219041</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan and India agreed on Wednesday to facilitate trade and travel on the Line of Control.]]>
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				<![CDATA[All sections of people from Kashmir, cutting across party lines, welcomed the new set of confidence building measures mooted by the Indian and Pakistan foreign ministers on Wednesday.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah described the fresh initiatives on cross-LoC travel and trade as a “good step” on microblogging site Twitter.com. Moderate Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday said Kashmiris should be included in it to make the process fruitful.

Details: CMBs on Kashmir

Pakistan and India agreed on Wednesday to facilitate trade and travel on the Line of Control (LoC) – the de facto border between the two halves of the disputed Kashmir state. Following are the details of these confidence building measures (CBMs) on Kashmir:

CROSS–LoC TRADE:

i)  List of 21 products of permissible items for Cross-LoC trade will be respected by both sides. The Working Group will review the trading list with a view to further specifying permissible items to facilitate intra-Jammu &amp;Kashmir Cross-LoC trade.

ii) Both sides will provide adequate facilities at the trade facilitation centres on each side.

iii)  The number of trading days stand enhanced from 2 to 4 days per week. Truck movements shall take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, both on Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakot routes.

iv)  The Designated Authorities will resolve operational issues concerning cross-LoC trade through regular interaction.

v)  Regular meetings between the Chambers of Commerce and traders of both sides will be facilitated.

vi)   Existing telephone communication facilities should be strengthened.

vii) The meetings of the Designated Authorities will be held alternately at the Terminal of the Crossing Points on both sides of the LoC every quarter or as and when deemed necessary.

CROSS-LoC TRAVEL

i)   Cross-LoC travel would be expanded on both sides of the LoC to include visits for tourism and religious pilgrimage. In this regard, the modalities will be worked out by both sides.

ii)  Facilities including waiting area, terminal and clearing procedures at the operational crossing points will be streamlined by both sides for smooth Cross-LoC travel.

iii) The Cross-LoC bus service between Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakot routes will henceforth run on every Monday.

iv)  Application forms and requisite documentation in respect of travel across LoC will be exchanged by email between Designated Authorities of both sides. Such email transfer of application forms will be backed up by hard copies.

v)  Both sides will expedite the processing time for applications, which shall not be more than 45 days.

vi) Six month multiple entry cross-LoC travel permits will be allowed by the Designated Authorities after completion of the required formalities at an early date.

vii) Coordination meetings between the Designated Authorities will be held at the Terminals alternately on both sides of the LoC every quarter or as and when deemed necessary.  

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28th, 2011.]]>
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