NEW DELHI, Dec 21: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has urged India to hold dialogue and adopt a more “democratic attitude” to ease tensions between the two countries.

“After my government took over from the military government, I truly felt that India would change its attitude towards an elected government. But this has not worked out,” he told weekly magazine Outlook in an interview.

“My assessment was that we should have moved on politically, but I have to say that India just does not want to talk to Pakistan. As prime minister, I want a dialogue. This is the message which I want to send to India,” he said.

The premier said postponement of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit, which was due to be held in Islamabad next month, was forced by India’s attitude.

“It was not something we wanted to do. India just does not care or bother about other Saarc countries. If it is really the biggest democracy, it should really be more democratic in its attitude,” he added.

“I was looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Vajpayee at the Saarc summit. Unfortunately, it has been postponed. It would have been a good opportunity (to meet him),” Jamali said.

“So let us see when such an opportunity will arise again... The status quo will remain and we all know that this is not good for anyone in the region.”

Vajpayee had said he would attend the summit — in what would be his first trip to Pakistan in nearly four years — only if Islamabad put an end to the “cross-border terrorism” in Kashmir.

Jamali said there had been no significant incidents of “cross-border infiltration”.

“There may have been stray incidents. But believe me, no country can afford to promote cross-border infiltration. My government is very clear that there will be no cross-border infiltration,” he added.

“Tell me, why should we do it? It certainly suits no one, does it? This is a very wrong approach. We are not doing it, believe me.”

Jamali said the subject of the India-Pakistan relations figured during a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca earlier this week.

“I told Ms Rocca about my days in boarding school... with my cousins. There was one cousin who used to continue crying even when there was no reason to do so,” he added.—AFP