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Pak envoy pitches for continued dialogue with India

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Press Trust of India New Delhi
Pitching for continued dialogue with India, Pakistan today said there are "very important" issues like Kashmir, Siachen and visa that need to be resolved.

"As far as Pakistan is concerned, Pakistan wants that all issues with India are settled amicably. These include some political issues, Kashmir issue, Siachen issue. These are very important issues, which need to be resolved through dialogue," Pakistan High Commissioner to India Salman Bashir told reporters here.

He said that there are also people-to-people issues like the visa issue that should also be settled.

"This can happen only when both the sides wish and there is a political will. The agenda of the two nations are full and both the countries should take the dialogue process ahead," he said.
 

India had last month put on hold the proposed group tourist visa facility to Pakistani nationals in the wake of growing unease in bilateral ties following the killing of two Indian soldiers along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and a suicide attack in Srinagar.

The government had already put on hold visa on arrival facility for senior citizens -- part of the new relaxed India-Pakistan visa agreement -- hours before its operationalisation on January 15 following heightened tension along the LoC.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked Pakistan after the January eight barbaric killing of Indian soldiers in Kashmir, including beheaing of a jawan, to create a more conducive environment to take the normalisation process forward.

Singh had said he was yet to see any "tangible progress" in dismantling of terror infrastructure in Pakistan and bringing to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

Asked when will the next high-level dialogue likely to happen, Bashir said, "We hope that the dialogue will continue and we look forward to further meetings between the two countries.

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First Published: Apr 05 2013 | 4:25 PM IST

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