Asserting that Pakistan and India cannot afford another war, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday said that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a “sensible and sane” person who really wants the two countries to resolve their issues.
Speaking highly of the Indian premier’s intentions to share good relations with Pakistan, Gilani said that Singh expressed several times during their recent meeting that he wanted to do “something really positive” for both countries.
Gilani was speaking to senior civil servants participating in the 94th National Management Course.
Singh had shown a commitment to improving relations between the neighbours and said the Kashmir issue can be resolved diplomatically, he said.
The PM added that the Indian prime minister also expressed his views to fight common enemies of poverty, hunger and unemployment in the two countries.
The two prime ministers met during the ICC World
Cup semi-final between Pakistan and India on March 30 and Singh had said India and Pakistan should put ‘ancient animosities’ behind them.
At the National Management Course, Gilani said that he had officially met his Indian counterpart four times – in Colombo in 2008, Sharm El Sheikh in 2009, Bhutan in 2010 and at Mohali in India last month. The premier also added that they met unofficially on several occasions.
Gilani said that as implementers of government policies and as contributors to policy making, the role of senior civil servants was pivotal to the success of the transitional phase of polity and administration. APP (WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT BY NEWS DESK)
Published in The Express Tribune, April 13th, 2011.
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