‘Peace process with India likely to gain pace under Sharif govt’
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan expects that the peace process with India will gain pace after the installation of new government.
“We hope that the dialogue process would pick up momentum in all areas,” Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry said at the weekly media briefing.
The peace process has been on a virtual hold since the violations of the Line of Control in Kashmir at the start of this year. Tensions resurfaced when an Indian prisoner, Sarabjit Singh, died after an attack by inmates in a Lahore jail and a Pakistani, Sanaullah, was fatally beaten in Jammu jail. Another Pakistani, Abdul Jabbar, was injured in an attack in Tihar prison.
Aizaz said Pakistan had always emphasised continuity of the peace talks so that outstanding issues could be resolved. The peace process has remained accident-prone and there have been numerous starts and stops, which impeded progress towards normalisation of ties between the two countries.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while congratulating Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on the victory of his party in the May 11 elections, had expressed the hope to work with him to “chart a new course and pursue a new destiny in the relations between our countries”.
Singh also invited Sharif to visit India at “a mutually convenient time”.
The PML-N chief, who is set to become the next prime minister, also extended an invitation to the Indian leader to visit Pakistan.
Sharif has been an ardent supporter of improvement of relations with India. Being an industrialist himself, Sharif is particularly keen to foster bilateral trade and is likely to move forward with the agreement reached last year to grant most favoured nation (MFN) status to India which could not be implemented by the weak PPP government, particularly while the country was going to the polls.
Mercifully, relations with India and the Kashmir issue did not figure during the election campaign. Even the violent reaction in India over Sarabjit Singh’s killing and a tit-for-tat killing of Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah in Indian jail remained non-issues in the election.
Pakistan-India relations have largely remained the exclusive preserve of the army and faced opposition in Punjab from right-wing parties, religious groups and a section of the media. With his conservative Punjabi credentials and emphatic mandate, his patriotism cannot be questioned by these lobbies. There is also a paradigm shift in army’s formulation of India being the primary enemy. The Taleban have relegated this position to second place.
Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2013/May/international_May557.xml§ion=international&col=
“We hope that the dialogue process would pick up momentum in all areas,” Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry said at the weekly media briefing.
The peace process has been on a virtual hold since the violations of the Line of Control in Kashmir at the start of this year. Tensions resurfaced when an Indian prisoner, Sarabjit Singh, died after an attack by inmates in a Lahore jail and a Pakistani, Sanaullah, was fatally beaten in Jammu jail. Another Pakistani, Abdul Jabbar, was injured in an attack in Tihar prison.
Aizaz said Pakistan had always emphasised continuity of the peace talks so that outstanding issues could be resolved. The peace process has remained accident-prone and there have been numerous starts and stops, which impeded progress towards normalisation of ties between the two countries.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while congratulating Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on the victory of his party in the May 11 elections, had expressed the hope to work with him to “chart a new course and pursue a new destiny in the relations between our countries”.
Singh also invited Sharif to visit India at “a mutually convenient time”.
The PML-N chief, who is set to become the next prime minister, also extended an invitation to the Indian leader to visit Pakistan.
Sharif has been an ardent supporter of improvement of relations with India. Being an industrialist himself, Sharif is particularly keen to foster bilateral trade and is likely to move forward with the agreement reached last year to grant most favoured nation (MFN) status to India which could not be implemented by the weak PPP government, particularly while the country was going to the polls.
Mercifully, relations with India and the Kashmir issue did not figure during the election campaign. Even the violent reaction in India over Sarabjit Singh’s killing and a tit-for-tat killing of Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah in Indian jail remained non-issues in the election.
Pakistan-India relations have largely remained the exclusive preserve of the army and faced opposition in Punjab from right-wing parties, religious groups and a section of the media. With his conservative Punjabi credentials and emphatic mandate, his patriotism cannot be questioned by these lobbies. There is also a paradigm shift in army’s formulation of India being the primary enemy. The Taleban have relegated this position to second place.
Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2013/May/international_May557.xml§ion=international&col=
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