Pakistan Army on board peace talks: Singh
Indian prime minister says that after a very long time, Pakistan's armed forces are fully on board.
Two days after he and his Pakistani counterpart resolved to write a ‘new chapter’ in relations between their countries, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday that Pakistan’s powerful military was fully on board in carrying forward the peace process, reports The Economic Times.
“I did discuss with Prime Minister Gilani whether the Pakistan Army is fully on board to carry forward the peace process. The sense I got was that after a long time, Pakistan’s armed forces are fully on board,” Singh told media persons on board Air India One while flying back home from the Maldives.
Premier Singh met with his Pakistani counterpart on the sidelines of the Saarc summit in the Maldivian city of Addu.
‘Man of Peace’
Singh’s description of Prime Minister Gilani as a ‘man of peace’ invited the wrath of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.
Reacting to BJP’s criticism, Singh said: “I have met Prime Minister Gilani four to five times. He agreed with me that there is no way but to find a peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues.”
“I, therefore, believe that Pakistan has a democratic government and we will like to strengthen the hands of democratic government,” he said. “In Gilani, we have a prime minister who we can work with.”
The BJP has also accused the Indian premier of going soft on “terror emanating from Pakistan” barely days before the third anniversary of 26/11 attack. But Singh said that he has made it clear (to Gilani) that if another ‘barbarous’ Mumbai attack were to happen, it will be a ‘setback’.
New Delhi had called off a slow-moving peace process with Islamabad following attacks on Mumbai’s landmarks by gunmen on November 26, 2008, blaming them on Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
But relations have improved since as both sides have resumed the stalled peace process. In the Maldives meeting they struck an upbeat note pledging to write a “new chapter” in relations between their countries and hoped that the next round of the dialogue would be more result-oriented.
Singh also said that his decision to resume the peace process with Pakistan was not individual-centric. “Our approach to Pakistan is trust but verify. We are not putting blind faith in one individual. I do hope it will genuinely lead to the normalisation of relations,” he said.
Pointing out that Pakistan-India relations are ‘subject to accidents,’ Singh took positive note of the decision of Pakistan to grant the Most Favoured Nation status to India and stressed on encouraging development in areas like trade and the willingness of Islamabad to discuss all issues, including that of terror.
“I told him (Gilani) that terror as an instrument of state policy has no takers in the world and it has given rise to Pakistani terrorism. Terror has to be dealt with firmly,” he said. “In these areas (trade and terror), it is possible to find the way forward.”
“Trade and economic relationship is one area where progress is possible,” he added. “The thinking people in Pakistan realise that trade is a win-win situation.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2011.