Pakistan

Pakistan ready to resume dialogue with India: Fatemi

Premier's special assistant on foreign affairs says PM Nawaz desires cordial relations with India

Web Desk/APP November 03, 2015

PHOTO: BUSINESS RECORDER

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi said on Tuesday Pakistan is ready to hold dialogue with India on all outstanding issues.

"It is a reality that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif desires cordial relations with India," Fatemi said while addressing a seminar on 'Pakistan India Relations - Emerging Relatives' in Karachi.

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Fatemi recalled that it was the premier who took the initiative to hold talks with India. Further, he urged members of civil society to continue to push the leadership of both countries to hold talks.

Also speaking on the occasion, former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said that he has "not lost faith in the common sense of the people on both the sides and things will hopefully move in a positive direction."

Kasuri pointed out how crucial it is for India to seek peace with its neighbours, especially Pakistan, if it wishes to play the role of a global leader. “If Modi wishes to be successful, he needs to sit on the table with Pakistan,” he said.

Further, he lauded the efforts of PM Nawaz for taking initiative to hold composite dialogue with India.

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In August this year, efforts to normalise relations between Pakistan and India took a blow when the scheduled talks between the national security advisers (NSAs) of the two neighbours were called off just hours before Sartaj Aziz was set to fly to New Delhi. Prior to cancellation of talks, at a news conference in New Delhi, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said Aziz was welcome in the Indian capital only if Pakistan assured India by midnight that the planned NSA meeting would focus only on terrorism-related issues and that Aziz would not meet Hurriyat leaders during his stay. However, Pakistan said the country was ready for talks with India but will not accept any preconditions.

COMMENTS (26)

V. C. Bhutani | 8 years ago | Reply All Pakistan's concerns begin and end with Kashmir. Pakistan wants that India should hand over Kashmir to Pakistan on a plate. As long as that remains the attitude on Pakistan's side, there is no sense in beginning talks. Nothing will be achieved. V. C. Bhutani, Delhi, 4 Nov 2015, 1007 IST

HurryHurry | 8 years ago | Reply Last I checked, Hurriyat was always ready for talks. Why is Pak not resuming dialogue with them?

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Pratibha | 8 years ago | Reply Noticed that this is a no news items in all the Indian newspapers. we do not want forked tongues talking about peace and sending us terrorists. Just stay out of our lives

Rex Minor | 8 years ago | Reply Pakistan ready to resume dialogue with India: Fatemi Let me rephrase the statement of Mr Fatemi! Pakstan Sharifs Government is ready to talk about a dialogue on resumptions of talks with the Indian Government on all issues including one about having cordial realtions with each other. Rex Minor

Bharat | 8 years ago | Reply Thank you for letting us know . We are not ready for another terrorist attack as happened just a few weeks ago

Skywalker | 8 years ago | Reply My sincere request - Please publish the agenda before the meeting, so we are ALL aware of what are we getting into. No more, this was implied and that was understood, he said, she said etc.

April | 8 years ago | Reply @LOL: Wow! That one incident inside India vs 4 wars and a out of budget amy?

vinsin | 8 years ago | Reply The decision to be a global leader has already been taken by Nehru. No, India is not interested in either regional leader or global leader. Neither India controls GB nor Tibet which is prerequisite. As far as soft power is consider, India has achieved lot without Pakistan. In the short term Pakistan can impact India hunger for cheap energy need but in the long term India has to become self sufficient in its energy requirement.

Raj - USA | 8 years ago | Reply You must read this news along with these two other news that ET has published today. http://tribune.com.pk/story/984060/media-coverage-pemra-orders-blackout-of-proscribed-groups/ http://tribune.com.pk/story/984113/for-regional-peace-china-ready-to-work-with-pakistan-india-against-terrorism/ Pakistan is under pressure from India, USA and even China now. During his recent visit to USA, Nawaz Sharif was told bluntly and curtly by Obama that the recent Gurdaspur terrorist attacks in India originated from Pakistan and GPS data points to this. US supported India's claims on this totally. This was the reason that the joint statement between Obama and Nawaz Sharif mentioned LeT, and Hafiz Saeed by name and Pakistan's assurances to act on them. PEMRA blackout on Hafiz Saeed and LeT, it follow through on the joint declaration. China is also concerned that it would not be able to get Gwadar and also lose out on the huge profits it expects from CPEC. China has realized that Modi and Ajit Doval are not the same as the old Congress. So, it is, for the first time, taking a neutral stand and not siding with Pakistan. However, India is not going to buy this from China as India knows that China is only interested in getting Gwadar for its military ambitions against India and USA. China knows very well that with India and USA on the same side and equally opposing Gwadar, China cannot do anything even if Pakistan fully supports it. In other news a few days back, US has already started to challenge China on the South China Sea. US warships ignored Chinese warning and sailed near an artificial island China has built there, ignoring China's exclusive zone and sovereignty claims. On this news, India will only agree to hold talks with Pakistan on its own terms only, i.e., mainly on terrorism and no consultation by Pakistan in India with Hurriyat before the talks.

Timorlane | 8 years ago | Reply Here comes another anomaly yammering about india as if we haven't had enough of that shahryar khan

SKChadha | 8 years ago | Reply Sir, talks have no meaning unless we have trust in each other that we will deliver on agreed issues. For talks Pakistan have no alternative except to build trust by first taking action on agreed issues in "Simla Agreement", "Lahore Declaration" and further joint statements of 24.09.2004, 18.04.2005, 14.09.2005, 3.10.2005 resulting in Lahore-Amritsar Bus Service and Muzaffarabad-Srinagar route for trade. On such agreed issues we have yet to achieve Nankana Sahib-Amritsar, Rawalakot-Poonch Bus services, Joint survey of Sir Creek, IPI Gas pipeline, Liberalized Visa, Visit to religious shrines, cultural exchange programs, trade (MFN status) etc. For developing trust Pakistan is also required to take meaningful action against terrorist and terror outfits responsible for 26/11. My simple question is whether India can be pressurized for talks by acts of terrorism?

zoro | 8 years ago | Reply Without Kashmir ???? Who twisted your arm ??? But India wants Kashmir to be included .... POK ... No talks if POK not included ... what say ???

Sunil | 8 years ago | Reply Pakistan needs to focus more on economy and terror from its soil. Kashmir is an integral part of India, and all its needs to discuss Pakistan occupied illegally Kashmir.

Vectra | 8 years ago | Reply Yes but lets 1st complete the pending UFA meet on terrorism.All other outstanding issues comes latter.So lets 1st complete 1st thing which was already pre-decided but remains pending and yes this time no hurriyat guys please because already the two meets earlier were cancelled on that only.

LOL | 8 years ago | Reply @Feroz: "First Pakistan needs to decide who represents Pakistan. Is it the elected Government or the Military Establishment. This question is most relevant because one profits from Peace and the other derives its power and profits from peoples insecurity." Last time i checked, it was an Indian Army colonel directly involved in Samjhota Express Incident. Very funny and stupid of you to blame Pak Army for "profits from peoples insecurity".

Auginpk | 8 years ago | Reply But India is ready to discuss only one issue.

Wajahat Khan | 8 years ago | Reply Both India and Pakistan should focus on peace initiatives instead of bashing against each other. PM Modi's belligerent attitude towards Pakistan is the biggest hurdle in this regard. India has to accept that long lasting peace is only possible through settlement of Kashmir dispute.

Vectra | 8 years ago | Reply "Kasuri pointed out how crucial it is for India to seek peace with its neighbours, especially Pakistan, if it wishes to play the role of a global leader." This is true to some extent as the other half of some extent lies with pakistan.But if Mr Kasuri argument is taken then by that logic pakistan should support India in international forum membership including UNSC permanent membership and drop its opposition to that.Pakistan should support India as South Asia's only permanent member in UNSC. .

Vectra | 8 years ago | Reply First complete the pending UFA meet on Terrorism only then both can discussing about so called all outstanding issues.1st step should always be performed 1st and pending meets should be cleared 1st,but please this time dont bring in that Hurriyat guys in between and spoil the party once again which was already cancelled twice.Although Pakistan's readiness to resume dialogue with India is welcomed.

curious2 | 8 years ago | Reply “If Modi wishes to be successful, he needs to sit on the table with Pakistan,” . Sounds a bit self serving. Reminds me of Sharif's speech in Washington telling everyone how important Pakistan was.

Jat | 8 years ago | Reply We should talk about Bollywood and how Pakistan can benefit from releasing Indian movies in more theaters ! Oh about Kashmir and terror we both know , neither Pakitsan will give up terror nor Indian will give up kashmir !

Usman | 8 years ago | Reply I was wondering how long it would take for the FO to resort back to grovelling.

Feroz | 8 years ago | Reply First Pakistan needs to decide who represents Pakistan. Is it the elected Government or the Military Establishment. This question is most relevant because one profits from Peace and the other derives its power and profits from peoples insecurity. Secondly, what would be the agenda of talks when both countries will not part with an inch of territory, in Kashmir or elsewhere ?

Omar | 8 years ago | Reply These types of comments give the wrong impression we are begging to have dialogue with India. Why don't we focus on more important issues for the country?

James | 8 years ago | Reply What happened to statement like "Pakistan will not initiate dialogue....ball is in India's court, etc"...?

inderjit sahota | 8 years ago | Reply we have had this dance of talks over many years, we exist in a state of permanent quasi war and peace. why waste time and energy over something that`s not going anywhere.

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