Describing terrorism as a common challenge, Pakistan today pitched for deeper Indo-Pak engagement to resolve various contentious issues including Jammu and Kashmir and said both the countries must take advantage of economic opportunities to improve relations.
Newly appointed Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit said terrorism has killed over 50,000 people in Pakistan in last 10 year besides damaging its economy and said concerted efforts were necessary to combat the challenge.
He said Pakistan realises that to achieve its targets on security and development, it has to resolve all problems with its neighbours, particularly India and also try to stabilise Afghanistan.
Delivering a talk at Jamia Millia Islamia university on Pakistan's foreign policy, he said Indo-Pak ties are "too much into negativity" and it was incumbent upon the leaderships in India and Pakistan to create a peaceful environment in the region for resolution of problems that bedevilled the relationship between the neighbours.
Noting that peace is central to growth and development of both the countries, he said both India and Pakistan need to resolve the issue according to the aspirations of people of Jammu and Kashmir through dialogue or as per provision of the Shimla agreement.
"You can always call it (Jammu and Kashmir) integral part of India but it is the distance between our two countries and also one of the components of composite dialogue. So it is important whether we resolve it in Shimla agreement or through mediation but we need to resolve the issue according to the aspirations to the people of Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
Basit said both India and Pakistan should not take the dialogue process as a "favour by one to another" and called for a sustained comprehensive dialogue process which need not reinvent the wheel.
Speaking against "stereotypes" that permeate national psyche both in India and Pakistan, Basit observed that Pakistan is "misunderstood" in India to great extent.
"The priorities of the new government under leadership of Nawaz Sharif are very clear. He wants a region first approach. Because if you look at things, security, development and international order are all interlinked. In terms of achieving our security and our development, we strongly believe we cannot achieve both these unless we have a peaceful region.
"And in order to have that we need to resolve all our problems with our neighbours, particularly India and also try to stabilise Afghanistan. I think in Pak-India relationship, we are too much into negativity. Even we wanted to move forward, despite our efforts in last years, things have not really moved forward," he said.
