However, despite the positive role of the Pak-India dialogue, Pakistan will not push India for talks as it is preoccupied with its own internal conflicts, he said talking to media after attending the 10th convocation of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) in Multan. Although, the Indian leadership particularly Prime Minister Manmohan Singh thought positively about the dialogue process, he acknowledged that progress was slow because of internal politics and pressure groups, added the foreign minister.
The Indian prime minister knows the region and its economic requirements, said Qureshi. “It is our desire that political forces should support his positive thinking to resolve issues between Pakistan and India,” he added. Both Pakistanis and Indians want peace and seek a positive change in the Indian attitude towards the dialogue process, so that both can pay more attention to development and the welfare of their people, he added.
In response to a question, Qureshi said that Pakistan was taking all possible steps on the water issue with India, adding that Pakistan had also suggested an agreement similar to the Indus Water Treaty with Afghanistan be established during Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s visit last month, in an effort to plug chances of any water related controversy between the two countries. Fielding another question, he said that Saudi Arabia was a brotherly country and the Saudi King and his people loved Pakistanis.
“Pakistan will have no objections, rather would be happy, if Saudi Arabia played its role to resolve issues between Pakistan and India,” he added. Furthermore, “the US understands that Pakistan will be more focused on tackling terrorism when it has no worries on its eastern border with India. And that is why the US desires that Pakistan and India should resume dialogue.” On Kashmir, he acknowledged that it was a sensitive issue because the people of Pakistan and Kashmir attached greater importance to it. APP
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