PM for resolving pending issues with New Delhi

Pakistan’s high commissioner to India briefs Nawaz on Obama’s visit


Abdul Manan January 29, 2015
Pakistan’s high commissioner to India briefs Nawaz on Obama’s visit.

ISLAMABAD:


Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has reiterated that India is an important neighbour for Pakistan, and that all outstanding issues with New Delhi should be resolved, including the decades-old dispute over Kashmir.


He made these observations on Wednesday during a meeting with Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit, who called on him immediately after the visit of US President Barack Obama to India.

The prime minister said, “India is an important neighbour for us and we would like to have normal relations with the country on the basis of mutual respect and sovereign equality,” adding, “Pakistan wants good-neighbourly relations with all countries of the region,” an official handout stated.

Premier Nawaz further noted: “It is important that the two countries [Pakistan and India] resolve all their outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir in order to have viable peace in the region.”

The high commissioner briefed the prime minister on the status of Pakistan-India relations and also sought his guidance on broader bilateral issues. Subsequently, the premier assigned a number of tasks to him.



According to sources in the PM office, Abdul Basit discussed Obama’s visit to India, their joint declaration stipulating various agreements, including civil nuclear deal.

While referring to the government’s brainstorming sessions in Murree, the sources said that the federal government has handed the country’s foreign policy and internal/external security to Pakistan Army.

The federal government believes that if Pakistan takes serious steps in combating terrorism and takes some visible actions in this regard then world leaders will definitely visit the country, the sources added.

Both civil and military leadership, the sources said, are on the same page with regard to eradicating the menace of terrorism and extremism from the country through implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) in letter and spirit.

They said the prime minister during his Murree meetings expressed satisfaction over Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif’s recent visits to US, UK and China.

It was noted that the army chief’s visits were exclusively about tackling terrorism and he succeeded in getting the necessary support from the capitals he visited to handle the issue in right earnest, the sources said.

PM Nawaz, along with his party members, finalised his agenda after handing over the two critical jobs to the military institution, the sources said, adding that the government would put more focus on overcoming energy crisis and revive economy in the remaining three years.

The sources also said that the federal government has decided to expedite the ongoing projects in the country, including metro bus schemes, road infrastructure, and to persuade China’s president to visit Pakistan so that all agreed upon uplift schemes about coal-based energy projects, construction of Lahore-Karachi Motorway and Pakistan Economic Corridor could be started and completed in time.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2015.

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