Emphatically stating that both Pakistan and India needed to move away from the culture of mistrust and that of setting pre-conditions for having a bilateral dialogue on issues of mutual interest to the two countries, Pakistan's High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, said national development potential in both countries can only be achieved if peace is pursued.
Interacting with a group of representatives from the Press Club of India over a working lunch on Monday afternoon, High Commissioner Basit said: "Peace can only be achieved through dialogue.
Pre-conditions won't work. The Government of Pakistan believes that national potential can be realised only if peace is pursued in the South Asian region. The question to be asked is, do both countries want to bury the hatchet or, continue their adversial relations?"
While congratulating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader and prime minister-designate Narendra Modi on their majority win in the general elections, the results of which were announced on May 16, High Commissioner Basit further said that with both Pakistan and India now having stable single party governments, there is hope fo relations between the two countries to improve.
Basit said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's gesture of congratulating Modi and inviting him to visit Pakistan at the earliest, should be seen as a development of moving away from a negative mindset to supporting agendas for development and socio-economic revival on both sides.
"He (Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif) also expressed hope that the BJP's decisive victory would augur well for Pakistan-India relations, and he also invited Mr. Modi to visit Pakistan," Basit said.
The Pakistan envoy maintained that both countries have missed too many opportunities in the past and have failed to take advantage of the ongoing globalisation, and pitched for greater engagement in all sectors between the two sides.
"The pursuit of peace in the region is our foreign policy's topmost priority. Second point I would like to make is that peace is in our mutual interest and peace can only be achieved through a peaceful process, through a dialogue progress," he added.
He made a particular mention of the important role that the media in both countries can play in promoting peace. Pakistan, he said, is very keen to promote a bilateral development agenda, and was confident about the incoming Indian Government reciprocating in full measure.
He was candid in stating that currently relations between Pakistan and India are full of regrettables and trust deficit that needed to be overcome sooner than later.
As an example, he cited the case of the Indian Government recently denying visas to 500 Pakistani pilgrims, and to the fact that Islamabad has given visas to 8000 Indian pilgrims so far. He also questioned New Delhi's decision to restrict the grant of visas to just 1500. This mindset, he said, must change.
During the interaction with the select Indian journalists, other subjects such as terrorism, the 26/11 terror trial in Pakistan, the fate of Pervez Musharraf and whether mafia don Dawood Ibrahim was Pakistan were discussed, but answers to them were by and large evasive and left to the judgement of courts and other concerned authorities in Pakistan.
Speaking on behalf the Press Club of India delegation, its president , Anand Sahay, highlighted the fact that essentially, Pakistan-India relations have almost always experienced huge highs and huge lows since both countries acquired their independence in 1947, and added that it was common knowledge and acceptance that there few stages of normality in bilateral ties.
He made a specific mention of the sadness and pity felt in India over the Pakistan Government's decision to expel two Indian journalists - one from the PTI and the other from The Hindu - without assigning any reason. He hoped that Islamabad would provide the answers to this unfortunate development sooner than later, and hoped the Indian Government, as has been the practice in the past, would not reciprocate.
Sahay said the media in both countries have played a significant role in "reducing the freeze" that exists between the two nations and their respective governments.
He said people-to-people interactions in both countries should not suffer, and added that the media should be given more elbow room to perform their responsibilities.
The Pakistan High Commission also screened a Board of Investment documentary titled "Pakistan: An ideal location for the smart investor" on the occasion, which elaborated on the various investor-friendly developments taking place in fields such as agriculture, tourism, minerals (like coal), oil and trade at Gwadar Port etc.
