War with India is not an option: Basit

Envoy to India says confrontation won’t solve problems between India and Pakistan

South Asia’s nuclear rivals are cooperating on the Pathankot terror attack probe as war between them is not an option, Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Basit said on Monday. “Only fools can think that confrontation would solve the problems between India and Pakistan,” the top envoy said.

Indian news agency ANI quoted Basit as saying that both India and Pakistan would have been benefitted enormously had there been peace in the region.



“Till the time we don’t sit and discuss the issues, I don’t think the problem can be solved,” he added.

The Pakistani envoy also expressed hope that the investigating agencies would get to the bottom of the terror attack on the Pathankot air base.



“We are maintaining cooperation on Pathankot. Let’s hope we will be able to get to the bottom of that incident,” Basit told the media here.

Addressing a conference earlier, Basit had said that mutual dialogue between India and Pakistan got derailed due to the terror attack on the Pathankot air base.

“We saw Sushma Swaraj visiting Pakistan and later Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited our country. The dialogue process between both nations witnessed a pace, but unfortunately Pathankot attack happened and the FS-level talks could not take place,” he said. “Today it has been five months of the Pathankot attack, but the dialogue process between India and Pakistan haven’t resumed,” he added.



The Pakistani envoy said Islamabad has an important relationship with India, adding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wants the relationship with the neighbouring country to improve.

Basit also said that he expected the dialogue process to begin soon so that key issues like Jammu and Kashmir, Sir Creek and terrorism are addressed at the earliest.

Basit’s remarks come just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif for his open-heart surgery to be held in the UK.

The India-Pakistan foreign secretary-level talks, scheduled in Islamabad on January 15 were called off after a terror attack at the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2016.