Pakistan seeks mutual respect relationship with India

Pakistan seeks mutual respect relationship with India: Qureshi



* FM says both countries have pledged to cooperate in anti-terror fight * Induction of US marines in Islamabad implies desire for good ties

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been seeking a relationship with India based on equality, mutual respect and benefit and non-interference, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Friday, adding Islamabad was working towards resumption of composite dialogue in this regard.

Addressing the Youth Parliament at a local hotel, he said composite dialogue provided the framework for discussion on all outstanding issues, including the core dispute of Jammu and Kashmir. He said terrorism, drug trafficking, the Wullar Barrage, trade, economic and cultural interaction, Sir Creek and Siachen could all be resolved through composite dialogue. He said issues related to water, security and terrorism had been forcefully raised with India in all recent interactions. He said the Sharm el-Sheikh joint statement had reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice. He said he would meet his Indian counterpart in New York on the sidelines of September’s United Nations General Assembly session in line with the joint declaration issued following the meeting of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Indian premier Manmohan Singh.

More cooperation: Qureshi said terrorism was the major threat to both India and Pakistan, adding they had resolved to cooperate with each other in fighting terrorism and sharing real time, credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threats. He urged the international community to play a role in ensuring the composite dialogue process was restarted, the APP news agency reported.

Commenting on Pak-Afghan relations, the foreign minister said: “An unstable Afghanistan will continue to export extremism, narcotics and instability across the vast Asian land mass, and beyond.” He said the security of not only Pakistan, but the entire world was dependent on Afghanistan’s stability. “Pak-Afghan relations have improved in the past year-and-a-half and there is no longer blame game,” he added.

Long-term: Later, talking to reporters, he said that regardless of the Indian pressure to prosecute Hafiz Saeed, Pakistan had its own legal procedure and needed tangible proof to proceed in court. He said the induction of over 1,000 marines by the US embassy in Islamabad was a message that the US wanted a long-term relationship with Pakistan.