Pakistan Calls Upon India to Join Meaningful DialogueThe Pakistani government Thursday called upon India to join in a sincere effort to the settlement of the long disputed Kashmir issue.The spokesman of Pakistani Foreign Office said in an official statement that instead of a positive response to its dialogue offer, India's announcement earlier today to extend ceasefire was another attempt to mislead world opinion. India must respond positively to the Pakistani initiatives for peace, permit the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) delegation to visit Pakistan and enter into a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, said the statement. Wire service reports have quoted Indian official sources as saying that under today's extension of the so-called ceasefire, Indian forces will be free to carry out "search and seize operations" and conduct "targeted attacks against militant groups, " according to the statement. Settlement Of Kashmir Issue to Usher in Pak-Indian CooperationPakistan and India can develop bilateral ties and promote economic cooperation once their dispute over Kashmir is resolved and a strategic restraint regime is established in South Asia, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Inamul Haque said here on Thursday.Inaugurating the Bilateral Roundtable Conference between ISSI and Institute for Political and International Studies Tehran, Haque said "if Kashmir issue is settled according to the wishes of Kashmiri people and strategic restraint regime on nuclear and conventional matters is in place, then I believe both countries can work together to develop bilateral economic cooperation and to develop transit trade." He stressed that "as long as the Kashmir dispute is not resolved... this region will find it difficult to have a durable peace." "It is only on the basis of sovereign equality and justice that we can usher in an era of peace and stability in this region," added Haque. He also mentioned the unilateral restraint along the Line of Control and a number of initiatives for the resumption of peace dialogue propped up by the Pakistani government while calling on the world to exert pressures on Indian side for the final resolution of all bilateral disputes. Along with Kashmir dispute, Haque touched wide-ranging issues in his speech pertinent to macro world trends, the phenomenon of globalization featured in free markets and trades under the rules "framed by the developed world" as well as the degraded situations in Afghanistan which constitutes the factors causing turbulence in South Asia. |
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