NEW DELHI, Jan 5: Pakistan and India will come out of the present difficult situation and resolve serious problems, including Kashmir, only through the process of dialogue, Pakistan High Commissioner to India Ashraf Jahangir Qazi said here on Saturday.

“We have serious problems to address and resolve. The best way to do it is through dialogue, through seriously taking on board each other’s views and concerns. That is what our President Pervez Musharraf has always been trying to do and I am hopeful that despite the difficult present situation, we will be able to do that. Both the countries are destined to be friends.”

Mr Qazi was talking to newsmen at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, where he went to bid farewell to 42 members of the Pakistan High Commission staff, including diplomats and their families (163 people) by a special chartered PIA flight, following India’s decision to curtail 50 per cent of the staff both in Indian High Commission in Islamabad and Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

Asked if India’s obduracy that it would not talk unless Islamabad put an end to what it alleged “cross-border terrorism”, he said Pakistan was not only a member of the international coalition against terrorism, but also a major victim of terrorism.

“We have always been against terrorism in any form and any shape. However, India and Pakistan have different points of view with respect to this subject. We need to sit down and discuss those difference”, he said, adding that Islamabad was always prepared to overcome the difficult times through dialogue wherever and at whatever level.

Asked whether he hoped the High Commission staff leaving for Pakistan would be able to return soon, he said, “Yes, hope springs internal. India and Pakistan are destined to be friends.”

The high commissioner said, “They are very happy to go back to Pakistan, but very sad to leave India before they could complete their assignment. We are also very sad because we believe that dialogue and communication is the answer when you have difficult relations or problems to resolve.’’—APP